Charles Dickens

"It was prevalent everywhere. Hunger was pushed out of the tall houses, in the wretched clothing that hung upon poles and lines; Hunger was patched into them with straw and rag and wood and paper; Hunger was repeated in every fragment of the small modicum of firewood that the man sawed off; Hunger stared down from the smokeless chimneys, and started up from the filthy street that had no offal, among its refuse, of anything to eat. Hunger was the inscription on the baker's shelves, written in every small loaf of his scanty stock of bad bread; at the sausage-shop, in every dead-dog preparation that was offered for sale. Hunger rattled its dry bones among the roasting chestnuts in the turned cylinder; Hunger was shred into atomics in every farthing porringer of husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil."(38)

The anaphora Charles Dickens uses here demonstrates how big of an effect hunger has on these peasants' lives. They cannot live a single day without worrying about what there is to eat or if they will even get to eat at all. Hunger dominates all of their lives and is "prevalent everywhere". As hunger slowly seeps into the peasants' lives, little by little their purpose of life changes from satisfying happiness into satisfying hunger. With only "wretched clothing" to wear and dirt to sleep on, hunger only brings misery into their lives. In addition to anaphora, the personification used to describe hunger gives it a human like nature. Hunger is alive in every aspect of their existence and there is no escape from it. Everywhere they turn, hunger is affecting something or someone. It isn't only about famine for food and the stomach, but it is also evident in poverty. They always desire for more comfort in their lives, but without it, they feel empty. The lives of the peasants completely revolve around hunger and never cease to change.