Comparing and Contrasting The San Francisco Earthquakes
Although both Mark Twain and Jack London’s pieces are both about earthquakes in San Francisco, because they wrote about different earthquakes, they characterize them differently with their choice of language, different reactions and details focused on, and the use of different rhetorical devices.
Twain and London both used extraordinary word choice that developed strong tone and imagery throughout their pieces. Twain’s use of words such as “enjoyed,” “terrific,” and “bright” build up his humorously amused tone. London, on the other hand, used words such as “ destruction,” “dwelling,” and “depressions” which create a devastating and depressing tone. When Twain writes, “every door of every …show more content…
London is scared of this earthquake, with reason, and is devastated about the destruction of the city. He is constantly using depressing words such as “crumbled,” “conflagration,” and “darkening” to describe the damage done to the city because of this earthquake. On the other hand, Twain is excited to be experiencing an earthquake as shown when he writes, “I enjoyed my first earthquake.” His focus on surrounding events instead of the earthquake itself and the damage done shows he was excited about the earthquake. Twain and London also characterized the earthquakes by focusing on different detail. As twain focuses on events happening during the earthquake such as women running out of their houses holding children by their ankles and comparing them to dressed turkeys, London focuses on the utter destruction of buildings and roads throughout the city. Twain even writes, “The destruction of property was trifling-- the injury to it was widespread and somewhat serious,” to show he was not too concerned about the destruction of buildings and roads as London was when he writes, “Wednesday night saw the destruction of the very heart of the city.” Their reaction to the earthquake and details impact the tone tremendously. London being scared and upset made the devastating and depressing tone more prominent, while Twain’s details and word choice made the humorous and amusement tone very …show more content…
Twain uses a lot of rhetorical devices such as personification, juxtaposition, and similes in order to emphasise the events and descriptions to keep the reader interested. Twain uses personification when he writes, “Every door of every house… was vomiting a stream of human beings,” which sticks out to a reader. When Twain writes, “Prominent citizens, who were supposed to keep the Sabbath strictly, rushed out of saloons in their shirtsleeves, with billiard cues in their hands,” he is using juxtaposition making the reader think about how those two statements would not usually go together but they are. Another rhetorical device Twain uses to characterize the earthquake is similes. He speaks metaphorically but he uses “like” or “as” to make the situations come to life and bring an image to the reader’s mind. London uses parallelism throughout his piece when he starts sentences with “On Wednesday,” “There was no,” and “In,” in order to create a repetition that will stick in the reader's
Although both Mark Twain and Jack London’s pieces are both about earthquakes in San Francisco, because they wrote about different earthquakes, they characterize them differently with their choice of language, different reactions and details focused on, and the use of different rhetorical devices.
Twain and London both used extraordinary word choice that developed strong tone and imagery throughout their pieces. Twain’s use of words such as “enjoyed,” “terrific,” and “bright” build up his humorously amused tone. London, on the other hand, used words such as “ destruction,” “dwelling,” and “depressions” which create a devastating and depressing tone. When Twain writes, “every door of every …show more content…
London is scared of this earthquake, with reason, and is devastated about the destruction of the city. He is constantly using depressing words such as “crumbled,” “conflagration,” and “darkening” to describe the damage done to the city because of this earthquake. On the other hand, Twain is excited to be experiencing an earthquake as shown when he writes, “I enjoyed my first earthquake.” His focus on surrounding events instead of the earthquake itself and the damage done shows he was excited about the earthquake. Twain and London also characterized the earthquakes by focusing on different detail. As twain focuses on events happening during the earthquake such as women running out of their houses holding children by their ankles and comparing them to dressed turkeys, London focuses on the utter destruction of buildings and roads throughout the city. Twain even writes, “The destruction of property was trifling-- the injury to it was widespread and somewhat serious,” to show he was not too concerned about the destruction of buildings and roads as London was when he writes, “Wednesday night saw the destruction of the very heart of the city.” Their reaction to the earthquake and details impact the tone tremendously. London being scared and upset made the devastating and depressing tone more prominent, while Twain’s details and word choice made the humorous and amusement tone very …show more content…
Twain uses a lot of rhetorical devices such as personification, juxtaposition, and similes in order to emphasise the events and descriptions to keep the reader interested. Twain uses personification when he writes, “Every door of every house… was vomiting a stream of human beings,” which sticks out to a reader. When Twain writes, “Prominent citizens, who were supposed to keep the Sabbath strictly, rushed out of saloons in their shirtsleeves, with billiard cues in their hands,” he is using juxtaposition making the reader think about how those two statements would not usually go together but they are. Another rhetorical device Twain uses to characterize the earthquake is similes. He speaks metaphorically but he uses “like” or “as” to make the situations come to life and bring an image to the reader’s mind. London uses parallelism throughout his piece when he starts sentences with “On Wednesday,” “There was no,” and “In,” in order to create a repetition that will stick in the reader's