It depends what symbol but most of the time yes...
The mood that these words help create is one of despair and difficulty. Clearly the narrator is struggling, he actually uses the words "difficult" and "struggling" clearly within his paragraph. Other words that contribute to this mood of despair are "fear", "faint", and "hungry". A person usually only feels these things and discusses them when they are in a place that is dangerous and that they have no real hope of getting out of.
A lot of epics have wars in them, such as the Iliad by Homer
I believe the correct answer is B. It evokes an image that helps the reader understand the current racial and political situation in Brixton.
This allusion doesn't explain the reasons why something happened. It just draws a parallel between two events, based on the fact that the African people were heavily oppressed by the majority and the political system itself. The Second Boer War was a war that Britain fought to consolidate its colonial supremacy, whereas the Brixton uprising was a riot led by poor, discriminated African-Caribbeans in London. Both cases included the oppressed Africans and the British oppressors.
The answer to that question is C.