A Tale of Two Cities by Nick Brandt

   Some folks are adamant to encapsulate what high school really is. Perpetuated by many is the quintessential experience of  friend cliques and malodorous cafeteria food, scary seniors and irascible staff members. Yet, there is a current phenomena amongst today’s youth that is making its way throughout the chambers of an older generation’s cognizance. This phenomena is the proliferation of the ranks of those students who will rather than find a cozy chair to nestle up in and read a book, pick up a phone and read a few hundred word summary of it. Why has this trend become so ubiquitous? Surely students understand the concepts drilled into their heads by their educators, that reading is crucial to adolescent development of emotional intelligence, analytical skills, vernacular, and a profusion of other abilities. Furthermore, SparkNotes must have some merit to its devices? This website surely doesn't squander the benefits of enriching classics like Hamlet, Robinson Crusoe, The Old Man and the Sea, and the Death of a Salesman... Or does it? For good measure I will do a comparative analysis of my takeaway from A Tale of Two Cities with SparkNotes.
  A Tale of Two Cities, like all of the aforementioned works of art, is written in such a way that few can simply pick up and fully understand the concepts presented, let alone the diction or grammatical structure, which is why I could see my peers utilizing the resource. Though when it comes down to the analysis of the book, there is in no realism or pragmatism, taking for example Sydney Carton. If you remove this plot from the highly romanticized French culture and toss it into a contemporary setting this book would be less than enchanting. A man who is depressed and unmotivated, despite looking the same as Charles Darnay (a good looking fellow) and making a lawyer’s salary, becomes dangerously obsessed with Lucille and finds surely temporary solace in dedicating his life to this. He asked to hang around her family and asked to be friends with the man who actually got the woman he loved, and to be the “uncle” of her kids. So finding his passion to live, orbiting someone who has acknowledged a dearth of chemistry and only feels pity for him (and trying to help raise her kids???) all the while he is a good looking lawyer....... Digressions aside, this man then masquerades as his rival and meets the guillotine in his stead for a girl who did not love him. He will not be remembered for this, not truly appreciated. He might find respite from the travails of our earthly abode in the celestial kingdom, however, this would be a highly disputed benefit of his actions. Spark attempts to negate any merit to the idea of self preservation. While there are conflicts arisen between my opinion and that of the SparkNote contributors, I must also give praise to them.
  Following my perusement of the website, I am confident to say that there is no dearth of depth in it. While you find bias, their analysis and critique are often backed up and solidified with evidence, which I appreciate. They also make archaic texts easier to understand and to use to make sure you had some modicum of understanding of the book. Take for example the idea of rebirth, a man’s purpose reborn, a father and daughter’s relationship reforged, a nation’s pride rekindled. While I understood this was occurring in the book I didn't fully grasp that Dickens was prodding me to appreciate this concept of rebirth. Doctor Manette died in a way while imprisoned 18 years, and was gingerly cradled by his very own daughter until he healed and was reborn spiritually. They truly highlighted this concept and my takeaway was this- there is an “ever present opportunity to be reborn.”
  At the end of the day, I feel SparkNotes is like any other online book analysis tool. You can abuse it and forego reading, garnering little to no knowledge or skill, or you can use it to accentuate the benefits of reading an enriching work of literature. It presents some bias, but then again bias is akin to perspective, which we all should hear more of. Sparknotes gets the rating 10/10 by IGN.