Week 3, Post 2: Dickens

I find it very interesting that Charles Dickens notices so much about people in their everyday lives. Sketches by Boz portrays a large amount of people in London just going on about their lives. I've particularly found it funny that on page 150, Dickens talks about a man on the omnibus that is very impatient. The part I found humorous was when he said "and if anybody puts a window down, that he can reach, he immediately puts it up again." I think about our everyday lives today, and I know many people that wouldn't have the nerve to reach over and put someone else's window up that they had just put down. It would be considered very impolite, but it seems like the man didn’t really care about being polite. Also that he pokes the driver with his umbrella is funny because it wouldn't be something you would see often. People would generally just sit and patiently wait and not ask questions.

What I find funny about Dickens writing is that he seems to speak of things as though he has tried a couple things out and knows some of the best ways to do things because he has gone through the tough ways. For example, as he talks about getting out of the cab he says, “We have studied the subject a great deal, and we think the best way is, to throw yourself out, and trust to change for alighting on your feet.” Then he goes on to talk about how sometimes it is nice when the driver gets out first then he is there to break you fall, if the driver did break his fall he would offer eight pence to him. The funny part was when he said “…on no account make the tender, or show the money, until you are safely on the pavement.” It makes me wonder if one day he gave the driver the money and then the driver just kind of let him fall out of the cab. I liked that he basically implied that he had done some things that didn’t work out as he had planned and he was telling the audience the best way to get out of the cab. Also, he could have been stating something that everyone else knew also because most people had to learn the hard way too.

Dickens is very good at describing people, he seems to start with some of the first things he notices about the person, and then he goes on to tell how they dressed, and the way they acted in some situations. Sometimes he would describe someone’s face, like how their nose is always red, how there hair was that day or if they wore a hat or a scarf. I like this because it allows me to understand a little better, and I get the image in my mind as if I were there also with him, seeing it as it happened.