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Compare and Contrast
There are some similarities and differences between 「The Story of an Eyewitness」 written by Jack London and 「Leaving Desire」 by Jon Lee Anderson. These elements lead to the same topic, the sorrow floating with extreme damage of natural disaster causing to the residents. However, the main method approaching to the topic is entirely opposite. Jack London wrote the story with the sight of the whole city, and describes about the overall situation. On the other hand, Jon Lee Anderson emphasizes on how the natural disaster ruined an individual’s life. The four elements I will compare and contrast are the type of disaster, setting, atmosphere and the style of writing. But before, let me shortly introduce the summary of two essays.
「The Story of an Eyewitness」is a report of Jack London about the catastrophe that had stroke San Francisco. The two disasters damaged the city which was conflagration and earthquake. Conflagration was promoted by the earthquake which struck for only 30 seconds. While Jack London was writing the report, the fire continued and the city was described to be destroyed by repeating the word, ‘wiped out’. Fortunately, at the end of the conflagration, people were able to prevent the fire and finally rebuilt the city. To summarize the doomed city in one sentence, the city was a wall of flame.
「Leaving Desire」written by the author, Jon Lee Anderson is a story with a main character which is Lionel Petrie. Petrie shows the desire a man could feel by insisting on not leaving San Francisco saying that his family will come back to his place to find him. Unluckily, San Francisco was awfully damaged by the Hurricane Katrina. It incurred sewage,...
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... As I mentioned, 「The Story of an Eyewitness」 is in chronological order whereas 「Leaving Desire」 have a lot of flashbacks.
To sum up, the comparison of these two stories, 「The Story of an Eyewitness」 and 「Leaving Desire」 lead me to understand deeper about the stories. The type of disaster, setting, atmosphere and the style of writing. The four elements have correspondence while some parts of them differ. However, as I am repeating, the all of them conducts to the same topic. The horror of the disaster might be nothing. The grief of death, loss and so many things that cannot be transferred into words penetrate one’s heart, telling us how dreadful the calamities are. To put it another way, disasters should be reduced into minimum. I hope not many people to feel the distress which could be found in 「The Story of an Eyewitness」 and 「Leaving Desire」 in the future.
A storm such as Katrina undoubtedly ruined homes and lives with its destructive path. Chris Rose touches upon these instances of brokenness to elicit sympathy from his audience. Throughout the novel, mental illness rears its ugly head. Tales such as “Despair” reveal heart-wrenching stories emerging from a cycle of loss. This particular article is concerned with the pull of New Orleans, its whisper in your ear when you’ve departed that drags you home. Not home as a house, because everything physical associated with home has been swept away by the storm and is now gone. Rather, it is concerned with home as a feeling, that concept that there is none other than New Orleans. Even when there is nothing reminiscent of what you once knew, a true New Orleanian will seek a fresh start atop the foundation of rubbish. This is a foreign concept for those not native to New Orleans, and a New Orleanian girl married to a man from Atlanta found her relationship split as a result of flooding waters. She was adamant about staying, and he returned to where he was from. When he came back to New Orleans for her to try and make it work, they shared grim feelings and alcohol, the result of which was the emergence of a pact reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. This couple decided they would kill themselves because they could see no light amongst the garbage and rot, and failure was draining them of any sense of optimism. She realized the fault in this agreement,
These two stories, although written by two different authors present similarities in the characteristics of the main character. Sammy and Tommy are presented with adversity they had previously never faced. Sammy has to decide should he stand up for the girls by quitting and be the hero or should he mind his own business and keep his job. Sammy is forced to quickly make a decision which his boss Lengel feels he made to rashly. “’I don’t think you know what you’re saying,’ Lengel said” (Updike, pg. 146). For Sammy his decision is what he feels he needs to do and he never regrets his choice. Tommy is faced with adversity of a different kind, he has to decide should he believe the teacher and listen to what she is saying or should he, like the other children, think she is strange and a liar. When she loses her job Tommy is forced to make a decision, confront the child who got her fired, or stay quiet and let the matter slide as it is not his problem. For both the boys their actions could be beneficial to them or it could cause them future problems. An example, if Sammy...
If an individual is familiar with their surrounding “they are more likely to help” (Altruism and Helping Behavior. Print). In the essay, the authors state “the scene of the crime, the streets, in middle class society “represents all the vulgar and perilous in life” (Milgram, Stanley, and Paul Hollander. Paralyzed Witnesses: The Murder They Heard. Print.). In society, the streets, especially at night, represents the dangerous and negative sides of society due to the crimes and chaos that occur on the streets (gangs, drive-by shootings, robberies, murders, large crowds walking, etc.). The crimes and dangers of the streets cause many people to fear being on the streets alone which leads to external conflicts. When the murder was occurring, the witnesses’ attitudes of the streets prevented them from calling the police due to the fear of the streets and since the witnesses were middle-class, they believed that Genovese was poor, a criminal, or someone who has nothing else to do and was expecting for the=is to eventually
9/11 is a horrific moment in history, and is well recognized for it’s spawn of mass hysteria in America. Because of this, The Crucible and 9/11 are highly similar in that both situations caused people to become so fearful and paranoid to the point where they began to treat others unfairly, and become more vulnerable/gullible to people’s selfish schemes. In the Crucible, the people of Salem wished for there to be safety in their town and in their religion. However the fear of witchcraft interfered with that, causing a mass hysteria to flood throughout the town. They began to point fingers. It also caused them to be vulnerable. hence becoming more gullible. These same situations happened to America after 9/11 occurred.
The books The Outsider and Eight Men were written by Richard Wright. Wright was born on Rucker's plantation near Roxie, Mississippi. He was the first child of Nathan and Ella Wright an illiterate sharecropper and school teacher. Wright’s father and mother were children of slaves. Wright uses the novel The Outsider to explore human reactions to oppression and domination, while mirroring his own feelings of marginality and the alienation from the land and people of his birth. While in Eight Men Wright the themes used reflect Wright’s views toward racism and his fondness towards the struggle of an individual in America. Throughout the novels, Wright uses colloquialism, symbolism and
Searing the mind with stunning images while seducing with radiant prose, this brilliant first novel is a story of damaged lives and the indestructibility of the human spirit. It speaks about loss, about the urgency, pain and ultimate healing power of memory, andabout the redemptive power of love. Its characters come to understand the
both stories shared similar ending and moral which is receiving enlightenment in first hand. "The
Starr, Kevin. “The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself.” University of California Press. 83:3 (2006): 45-61. Web. 16 April. 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161821
In the early twentieth century, San Francisco, a bustling city full of people with diverse cultures, stood in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution. At this time, the brilliant inventions of airplanes, automobiles, and radios were changing the everyday lives of many. San Francisco had just recovered from the four-year burden of the bubonic plague (“Bubonic”). However, right when things were getting back to normal, a destructive earthquake hit the city on April 18, 1906. Although the shaking lasted for less than a minute, the devastated city had crumbled buildings and a substantial loss of lives. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 had a lasting effect on the city and its people, and it proved to be one of the most catastrophic disasters in history.
Ten million California residents who lived closely from the major fault lines could have been endangered in many extreme ways. (House, 56). A tragic thing was that after the earthquake a multitudes of fire followed right after. The situation led to the water mains being destroyed and the firefighter being left with no water to settle the growing fire which continued blazing. The bay water was planned on putting all of the dure out but it was to far in distance to be able to transport it (Earthquake of 1906, 2). The firefighters who were putting out the fire were either surrounded or being burned by the fire that was blazing in all directions (San Francisco Earthquake, 2). A resident who was present during the event mention that he/she saw men and women standing in a corner of a building praying, one person who became delirious by the horrific ways that were surrounding him while crying and screaming at the top of his lungs “the Lord sent it, the Lord”. Someone also mentioned that they experience themselves seeing Stones fall from the sky and crushing people to death. Reporters say there were 100 cannons going off (San Francisco Earthquake, 3). People who lived fifty miles away from the fire was able to “read the newspaper at
There was a massive earthquake in San Francisco during the year of 1906. The country of United States went through great loss because of this massacre. Nearly 250,000 people had become homeless as the result of this great earthquake. Winchester pointed out the question: How unprepared was America when this disaster hit? He compared the San Francisco earthquake to the Katrina hurricane in 2005.
works of literature have tremendous amounts of similarity especially in the characters. Each character is usually unique and symbolizes the quality of a person in the real world. But in both stories, each character was alike, they represented honor, loyalty, chivalry, strength and wisdom. Each character is faced with a difficult decision as well as a journey in which they have to determine how to save their own lives. Both these pieces of literatures are exquisite and extremely interesting in their own ways.
“A Wall of Fire Rising”, short story written by Edwidge Danticat, presents one man’s desire for the freedom and also, the gap between reality and fantasy which is created by the desire. Two different perspectives of evaluating the life bring the conflict between the Guy and Lili who are parents to the little guy. Throughout the story, the Guy implies that he wants to do something that people will remind of him, but Lili who is opposing to the Guy, tries to settle the Guy down and keep up with the normal life that they are belong to. The Guy is aggressive, adventurous and reckless while Lili is realistic and responsible. The wall of fire is the metaphorical expression of the boundary where divides two different types of people. One is for the people who accept their position and try to do the best out of it, and the other for the people who are not satisfied with the circumstances and desires to turn the table. Through this essay, I am going to reveal how the contradiction in an unwise idealist’s attitude and his speech, and also how it drove the whole family into a horrible tragedy as well.
In both stories the main characters were disengaged. In “Cathedral” The husband was disengaging with his wife he mention he found himself thinking what a “pitiful live” the blind man’s lived, he says:
...oe strove not so much to tell a story as to produce an effect such as that of desolation and despair.