Assignment Compare the depiction of the hidden life of the city in Dickens', "Night Walks," and the section called "The Bridge" from Michael Ondaatje's novel, "In the Skin of a Lion." Response Buildings and structures are seen, experienced, interacted with and remembered every single day by thousands of different people from all walks of life. Some buildings are historically significant and others seemingly have no history at all. Despite the history of the buildings, structures etcetera, what they all have in common is the lives that have inhabited and influenced them. Each structure has a story of its own, well known or not, which is significantly important. The writings of Charles Dickens in his piece 'Night Walks' , and Michael Ondaatje's section from 'In the Skin of a Lion', The Bridge, both accurately reveal the hidden stories and lives of these structures by their use of imagery, personification and in depth exploration of what lies behind the presumed. In doing so, both authors are able to successfully project a more in depth experience of either walking through the streets of London alongside Dickens, or experiencing the construction of the Bloor Street viaduct (the bridge) depicted in Ondaatje's writing. In Charles Dickens' 'Night Walks' the reader is led alongside Dickens himself throughout his walks in London after dark in an attempt to help cure his insomnia. What Dickens discovers is a brand new side of London, a place that before his walks he was sure that he knew quite well. Through the use of imagery, Dickens brings his readers closer to the sensory experience of actually walking the streets of London themselves; "Walking the streets in the pattering rain ; "Drip, drip, drip, from ledge and coping, splash from pipes and water-spouts, and by-and-by the houseless shadow would fall upon the stones... ; "The wild moon and clouds were as restless as an evil conscience in a tumbled bed, and the very shadow of the immensity of London seemed to lie oppressively upon the