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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.
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.
"War is always, in all ways, appalling." This is how author Gary Paulsen describes war in his novel Soldier's Heart. Soldier's Heart is what we now know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Paulsen displayed many examples of appalling events in Soldier's Heart. Some events were from deaths of fellow men, or traumatic experiences. Many of these events have scarred many soldiers around the world. Here are a few examples of scarring, appalling events included in Gary Paulsen's novel, Soldier's Heart.
Stories are powerful devices that “are all we have, you see, to fight off illness and death” (Silko 1). Within the novels Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko and Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie, stories serve exactly this purpose. Each protagonist, Tayo and Haroun respectively, has an obstacle they must overcome. Tayo is a Native American World War II veteran who suffers from an illness of the mind, which is implied to be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is told that a Ceremony is the only way to cure him. The ceremony mentioned involves stories. Haroun is a young Indian boy who has gone through tragedy at a young age. His mother has left and his father has lost his job as a storyteller. Haroun feels that both of these occurrences are his fault. Stories are how Haroun saves his sad city, his father’s job, and brings his mother back. Both of the protagonists have burdens to carry upon their shoulders. The authors, though from two different cultures, use stories in their novels in similar fashions: as healing devices. This proves that stories are universal elements that can be utilized in the same way no matter what the culture.
Thus, both novels, full of tragedy and sorrow, began with the promise of new land, new beginnings and a better life, but all three were impossible to find within the pages of these novels. In the end, it was broken relationships, broken families, broken communities, but most importantly, broken dreams and broken hopes that were left on the final pages of both woeful, yet celebrated, stories.
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.
These two novels spoke about real powerful momentous events that occur in the authors’ lives. The authors emerged from the shadows and transformed their mishaps into motivation of overcoming life’s hardships. These two stories exemplify ways of overcoming Life’s hardships and finding sense of oneself. These authors break their vows of silence to prove the beauty of a broken person. They both converse on racial discrimination, relationships with God, & coming into themselves.
“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.
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
...way that the story is being interpreted and how the storm influences the story as a whole. Sometimes people need a wakeup call or a 'storm' to make them aware of how good they have things. In this short story Alcee and Calixta both come to realization of how good they have things with their spouses and how that they already found the ones that they love, which weren't each other. This made me aware of how we as people can take things for granted or believing we know what’s best for us. In reality we don't always know what’s best until something occurs and shows us that what we already have is the best.
The story is the most powerful and most compelling form of human expression in Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony. Stories reside within every part of every thing; they are essentially organic. Stories are embedded with the potential to express the sublime strength of humanity as well as the dark heart and hunger for self destruction. The process of creating and interpreting stories is an ancient, ongoing, arduous, entangled, but ultimately rewarding experience. As Tayo begins to unravel his own troubled story and is led and is led toward this discovery, the reader is also encouraged on a more expansive level to undertake a similar interpretive journey. Each story is inextricably bound to a virtually endless narrative chain. While reaching an epiphanal moment, a moment of complete clarity, l is by no means guaranteed, by presenting Tayo as an example, Silko at least suggests there is fundamental worth in pursuing and creating stories.
People around the city went to bed, everything seemed relatively normal. Smoke dwindling into the dark night sky, the faint smell of burning wood. All normal for Chicago. Fires were a daily part of life for this wooden city. Near the time of 2 a.m. the fire didn’t seem so normal and average anymore. A mean flame was being born, it was blazing to life.
“The story employs a dramatic point of view that emphasizes the fragility of human relationships. It shows understanding and agreemen...
...oe strove not so much to tell a story as to produce an effect such as that of desolation and despair.
In the stories “To Set Our House in Order” and “The Lamp at Noon” the authors are both able to effectively communicate that alienation is self-inflicted, while using multiple different techniques. As a result it becomes apparent that each author can take a similar approach to the alienation of a character in the story yet develop the theme in a unique way.