The cliché of a line that everyone uses but don’t really know what it means is “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Now after reading the first few chapters of this book, I understand what this statement truly means. It contrasts the life in two countries: England where life is going well, and France where life seems to be in the crapper. The beginning of the book I noticed that Dickens uses a different style of writing than I’ve ever come upon before. Its almost as if he tries to write his thoughts backwards in the sentence which takes the reader a while to pick up. For the first few chapters I had to concentrate on every single line to make sure I understood it fully, but now I seem to be picking up on it.
Chapter two is all about mail being delivered through terrible conditions. I think this could be foreshadowing for the Revolutionary War which was going on at this time. I think it’s trying to say that the war is going to be incredibly tough but they just need to keep fighting and pushing to make it through.
The book then fast forwards five years. In London, the tellsons bank is a small, unwelcoming bank which is somewhat mysterious. The bank is located next to a bar where the government has displayed the heads of executed criminals on the walls.
Chapter 5 is called The Jackal. I looked up what a jackal is on the internet, and it is an animal found in Africa very similar to the coyote. A jackal is a scavenger, which means it feeds on animals that were killed by others. Seeing this, I believe that the jackal has something to do with the book and him being a scavenger of some type.