This is an extract taken from Charles Dickens's Hard Times, that he wrote in 1854. The short extract describes in a very clear way Coketown, the city of coke. Right from the title the intelligent reader can understand that coke is the principal material that allow the productive process. In that period in England the industrial revolution was in full flat and the novelist wants to criticize the Industrial Revolution, its effects and people that pursuit money. The narrator is a third person omniscient and intrusive narrator that use a lot of metaphors, exaggerations and images that appeal to the reader's senses.   

The first sequence presents a town which is introduced though a metonymic style. The city is presented as a conglomerate of bricks. Right from the start the novelist often appeals to the sense, expecially to sight, smelling and hearing. The two color  that Dickens uses to describe the bricks are red and black. In the Puritan trend of thought red recalls blood, violence while black is the color of damnation. In this way Dickens connotes the town in a negative way. Besides the bricks become black because of the smoke produced by factories. Dickens criticizes pollution and guides the reader to have only one idea about the town. It's also present a contrast between nature and artificial. Factories are products of man, as well pollution. The smoke that factories produce is described by the novelist through a metaphor: "interminable serpents of smoke". According to the Puritan trends of thought, snake represents the symbol of temptation, so it has a negative connotation.

In the second sequence Dickens states that Coketown is inseparable from work, by which it is sustained. According to the Utilitarianism people must produce good, in order to climb the social ladder. The novelist compares the cylinders of the stream engine to a mad elephant. The words "forever and ever" point out the eternity of the working process  that will never stop, so there's no hope to a better life.  Another interesting thing is that the novelist criticizes the lack of imagination in the contemporary society. He states that all building have a similar aspect. For example the church is similar to a warehouse were the goods are stocked. The city appears monotonous not only in the colors, but also in the sounds, in the buildings and in the life. The alienation due to the repetitive and monotonous life is an important and also warning message of the psychological risk that people can face.  An intelligent reader, reading that extract can clearly imagine the city. Besides he can understand the conditions of life and the Victorian attitude to life.