Mark Twain And Jack London Analysis

A tail of one city, San Francisco, in two different periods of time. One in 1865 from Mark Twain, and the other in 1906 by Jack London. Clearly San Francisco as a city hadn 't changed that much in 41 years, but in reviewing the writings of Mark Twain and Jack London, one would think that they were a millennial apart. Twain took the light hearted approach to the catastrophe, while you could tell that the earthquake tore at the sole of London. In looking at the events as a whole, a much lighter viewpoint would be a favorable mindset, if only to help bring an optimistic outlook on the event. Undoubtedly the city would be rebuilt over and over again because the residents of San Francisco were aware that this wasn’t a freak occurrence. Twain viewed the people of the city and their reaction to the quake, while London viewed the struggle between man and mother nature.

“While I was in San Francisco, I enjoyed my first earthquake.” Twain uses humor in his statement regarding the quake, but most importantly, he is setting the stage for his open minded approach to the event. Clearly this was his first experience with an earthquake, as stated above; due to the fact that those that have experienced one multiple times, or

There never would have been a struggle between these two subjects had San Francisco not been build. The man 's need to prevail over all supersedes mother nature, or so man thinks. “The 30 seconds’ of twitching of the earth 's crust” proved that mother nature would prevail. “Oakland Minister said: “Keep your seats! There is no better place to die than this”- And added, after the third: “But outside is good enough!” He then skipped out at the back door. Certainly Twain found the Minister 's reaction to the earthquake comical. Given the Minister relied on his fight or flight sense, rather than his faith to exit the church and leave his flock as the church began to