Coketown and Manchester in A. de Tocqueville:

In
Hard Times' fifth chapter, Charles Dickens describes Coketown's city. The city
is fictional and the readers can't find it on a map. Right from the name the
readers are able to find an important function to the word coke. Indeed, the
coke was the most important fuel used, during the Industrial Revolution, to
work the machine. The novel is a narrative one and it returns to readers an
alienated vision of the town. Telling the story, Charles Dickens adopts third
omniscient intrusive narrator. Indeed, he privileges the technique of telling:
in the text there aren't any dialogue.

At
first, he describes the town underlining the color of the buildings which were
built using red brick. Of course, because of the smoke and ashes they had
become black. The use of colors made by the narrator is a symbolical one: they
are red and black in their different shades. They are "unnatural like the
painted face of a savage": in this case, the narrator introduces a similitude
just to reinforce what he has already said and to create a more detailed
picture of the town. Also, the word savage focuses on the absence of
civilization. In addition, the town was full of industries out of which
interminable "serpents of smoke" trailed forever. The idea of pollution is
expressed not only by the smoke but also by the river and the canal which are
dirty because of ill-smelling dye. The architecture arounded the inhabitants
does no show any creativity: every buildings is exactly like the others.

The
use of onomatopoeia words like "rattling" and "trembling"  reinforces the idea of the noisy city. At
last but not least he introduces another important similitude to can imagine
the movement of the steam engine: " it works up and down like the head of an
elephant in state of melancholic madness". The description of the buildings, of
the inhabitants which work and do the same thing every day make the readers
able to better understand the monotonous life that each person lived.

In
conclusion, Coketown is a city in which facts are everywhere and there is no
room for fancy and imagination.

In opposition to Charles Dickens description of
Manchester there is Alexis de Tocqueville one. 
Manchester is described as a town in which the celebration of the
individual is underlined. The text is a diary of a journey and it is written in
a descriptive style. He tries to make a mental description of the city. At
first, he starts with the geographical position and the concept of man-made
which is in contrast with society. He gives a negative impression of the town
and he condemns the government that does not interfere. He continues saying to
the readers that Manchester is the attraction center of industry. Also, he
remembers the time when the land were cultivated saying the word "uncultivated
land". According to the sight, to the hearing and to smell, he reinforces the
idea of a town in which the pollution is everywhere upon it. But the general
idea he gives is that no one mustn't live in Manchester. The natural elements
of this town (the water for example) are fetid and stained with a thousand
colors because of the factories they pass.