San Francisco, California has experienced fourteen earthquakes above a magnitude above 5.1 since 1836. The earthquakes of 1865 and 1906 both brought on varying forms of destruction. Twain, writing about the earthquake of 1865, found amusement and humor in the devastating event; while London only saw the destruction and loss in the earthquake of 1906.
To inform and to entertain are, respectively, Jack London’s and Mark Twain’s purposes in writing about the two different earthquakes that struck San Francisco. Both writers experienced the earthquakes’ destruction first-hand, but had very different interpretations of it. Where London saw devastation, Twain saw only a massive force that moved the ground beneath his feet. And where Twain saw humor, London saw large sums of dollars shaken and burned to the ground. To emphasize and prove their points, the authors use different levels and forms of rhetorical devices and language. Only seeing loss in the natural disaster, London uses short sentences
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London continues to develop the idea of devastation by using little imagery and rather uses facts and more concrete details. The little imagery that he does use, such as describing the sky as “darkening” and the land as “filling with smoke,” creates an idea of darkness destruction. This and the fact that he writes chronologically furthers his interpretation of the earthquake as nothing other than a horrific event that only resulted in the fire that destroyed the entire city. Twain had only a slightly different understanding of the earthquake he witnessed. Twain’s piece is full of lengthy sentences filled with imagery. The imagery he uses in sentences such as when he describes the man getting stuck in the doorway and the houses “vomiting a stream of human beings,” shows that while the earthquake may have been scary at the time, but Twain was able to find the humor in the
The impact of the New Madrid earthquake, although did not result in a lot of fatalities or destruction, left lasting effects on the land and those involved. Many did not know what to do, and it caused terror and fear in those who were ill prepared for the earthquake. It remains the largest earthquake in North America, and will always be remembered in the hearts of the Americans.
After the earthquake the government thought that it would hurt the town to tell them what really happened so know one the true death count of the earthquakes rage, in edition not even the government truly knew how much died on that terrible day as deaths in china town were never even recorded. The event demolished 490 city blocks including 25,000 buildings, and an estimate of 80% of the city was destroyed. “Comprehending Calamity” by Emma Burke and
He couldn 't even scream because he was choking on dust and barley move because he was being crushed be falling bricks. This book is about the massive earthquakes in San Francisco that occurred at 5:12 am on April 18th, 1906. The earthquakes terrified hundreds of thousands of people instantly. Thousands of people were killed, crushed to death by houses, buildings,
This story shows Mark Twain’s prestigious ability to manipulate his transitions and vocabulary to present a beautiful and complex story. Twain’s usage of
On April 18, 1906 a deadly earthquake struck San Francisco. The people of San Francisco were having a normal day but at 5:13 a.m the earthquake struck. It lasted for 48 seconds it resulted in the city going up in flames.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Twain places the reader in a situation that requires much pondering of meaning and deep, intelligent insight into the commonalities performed by leading political
Mark Twain, an 18th century humorist, was known for his critical and satirical writing. In one of his most famous essays, “ Fenimore Coopers Literary Offenses” Twain addresses Coopers inability to realistically develop a “situation” and his failure to effectively back up his stories in order for them to be more plausible. To dramatically convey his unimpressed and sarcastic attitude, he applies biting diction, metaphors and hypophora throughout this work . By continuously using biting diction, Twain develops a mocking tone towards Fenimore Cooper’s incapability to create even the simplest of storylines. In the title of the work a sarcastic tone is evident; the word choice is utilized to reinforce the argument stating how Coopers work is an offense to the world of literature.
For instance, “That slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody’s steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those tumbling ‘boils’ show a dissolving bar and a changing channel there…that tall dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark?” (44-51). Here, the reader is able to comprehend that by contemplating about the negative aspects of the river and how it would result in certain obstacles for a pilot of a steamboat, Twains initial view of the Mississippi River was ultimately diminished. Therefore, the author contemplates whether possessing knowledge about the beauty of an aspect and its true connotation truly belittles it compared to only seeing its beauty without thinking. Likewise, Twain contemplates the position of doctors relating their possible viewpoints towards a patient with his circumstances.
An additional example of London’s style devices that support his vivid writing style is the repetitive use of number, measurement, counting and time. While reading the two stories the numbers help creative pictures of how much further the men had to go or helped to put more emphasis on a specific topic. In “To Build A Fire” the first page is filled with examples of London using numbers or measurements. A few examples would be, “The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of snow,” “This dark hairline was the trail-that lead south five hundred miles to the Chilcoot Pass, Dyea, and salt water; and that led north seventy miles to Dawson…” are just a few examples right from the beginning. As mentioned before the use of specific numbers in this case really helps to put into perspective how long this man actually has to go to get back to his group.
The earthquakes take place in people's heads, relationships and lives in general. Although all of the stories are loosely based on the Kobe Earthquake in 1995, none directly respond
Now that Henry Howard knows he has to save the world when in an emergency, he keeps an eye out for any problems. In his class, they are learning about earthquakes and where they occur most often. Henry told his class that Japan is one of the most common places for earthquakes to occur. He had a student ask him, “What is the worst earthquake that has happened in Japan?” Henry replied, “The biggest earthquake wasn’t the most damaging one.
Compare And Contrast Essay In “The San Francisco Earthquake” by Jack London and “The San Francisco Earthquake” by Mark Twain I’m going to describe the tones, purpose, descriptions and how their relationships are similarly and unlike each other. Earthquakes are a very intense situation towards the environment around society as shown in the essays above. The tone on “The San Francisco Earthquake” by Jack London has a disturbed tone.
I begin by estimating the direct effects of the earthquake, including the casualties and the impact on GDP. I also examine its impact on prices at the regional level, using new data on builders’ wages. Impact on Population Estimates of the death and casualty tolls of the 1755 earthquake vary tremendously, ranging from 10,000 to almost 100,000 in Lisbon alone.
Mark Twain uses dialogue to add credibility to this story as it is done with the purpose of painting a picture of the setting and revealing more information and authenticity about the characters from the story. For instance, when Twain’s character had just arrived in the town he “found Simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the bar-room stove of the old, dilapidated tavern in the ancient mining camp of Angel's.” This sentence is vital to the story as it set a scenery and at the same time the type of characters the readers can expect. By using imagery in his dialogue, Twain basically gave the readers a realistic and believable setting for the story. He was giving facts such as the West was a more lonely and old place but had visitors due to its
The short story, To Build A Fire by Jack London demonstrates the man’s powerlessness compared to the forces of nature. It is the man’s ego that prompts him to challenge nature by embarking on the journey while he understands well that he will encounter the full wrath of extreme weather condition. Additionally, the man 's powerlessness is seen in the setting of the action, his lack of identity and the author 's depiction of the mightiness of nature. Besides, the protagonist effort to overcome nature is faced with equal efforts from the latter to defeat him as seen in his failure to light a fire. It is for these reasons that this paper maintains that the story, To Build A Fire by Jack London, is a true manifestation of the conflict between man and nature and which although the former initiate he losses to the latter in