ipl-logo

What Is The Mood Of The San Francisco Earthquake

483 Words2 Pages

Earthquake Essay
In his excerpt “The San Francisco Earthquake,” Mark Twain outlines his personal experience of the San Francisco earthquake of 1865. Twain recounts every detail as he watches the events of both earthquake and panicked citizens unfold. In identifying the disastrous earthquake, Twain equates the urgency of all people, manipulates dark and unsettling diction, and provides the earthquake with more meaning through his characterization and personification of its effects.
Twain implements parallelism in order to equate the citizens to one another due to the devastating effects of the earthquake. In an attempt to create a sense of equality resulting from the earthquake, Twain continuously uses references of people running out of their homes with increasingly less clothing. This emphasized aspect of this excerpt highlights the intensity of the earthquake and the fact that it put all people in an extreme sense of urgency. …show more content…

He established first the damage of a specific building that came crumbling down and articulating that the bricks fell “sprawling” along the road. Twain’s deliberate use of the word “sprawling” not only provides a visual for the collapse, but also provides the audience with the idea that the building was humanlike. This creates a menacing tone of the earthquake. Twain continues with this portrayal of the earthquake when it refers to the “tricks it did” and how he only saw a few. This statement implies that the “tricks” Twain saw were only minor effects in comparison to the havoc wreaked by this menacing earthquake. His consistent use of unsettling diction demonizes the earthquake and its

Show More
Related

Summary Of I Survived: The San Francisco Earthquake

418 Words | 2 Pages

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,

Read More

Emma Burke 1906 Analysis

717 Words | 3 Pages

“Comprehending the Calamity” by Emma Burke and “Horrific Wreck of the City” by Fred Hewitt are two historical articles that both describe the destruction of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 and how it affected the people. Hewitt says on page 1, “No pen can record the sufferings of those who were crushed to death or buried in the ruins that encompassed them in an instant after 5:13 o’clock Wednesday morning.” Likewise, Emma Burke says on page 2, “The fallen chimneys had torn through the ceilings into two of our rooms; the flat tin roof had thus been bent down, and now acted as a funnel. We heard an ominous drip, drip, and then a steady splash.” These pieces of evidence show both of the authors believe that this horrible earthquake destructed the city of San Francisco.

Read More

How Does Mark Twain Use Ethos Pathos And Logos In The Damned Human Race

761 Words | 4 Pages

However, Twains use of mockery, fraudulent authority and hasty generalizations with-in his essay lends to an overall successful delivery. His use of logos, by means of sarcasm, are very effective in causing the reader to see his perspective. Twain discuss a squirrel gathering his winters supply of food, and how the squirrel only gathers what he needs to survive the season. By comparing the squirrels to mankind’s endless lust for materials, Twain use of logos is able to shame people into believing they are not equal with the squirrel in this

Read More

Figurative Language In The Notorious Jumping Frog Of Calaveras Country

957 Words | 4 Pages

Twain: In “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country” the tone of the narrator’s relationship began on the very first page. The narrator says that he has a “lurking suspicion” that Leonidas W. Smiley is made up and that Wheeler would “bore me to death with some exasperating reminiscence of him as long and as tedious as it should be useless to me” (Twain 1285). The narrator says that Simon Wheeler’s story telling is a “monotonous narrative” with no expressions (Twain 1285). Wheeler tells a Story about a man named Jim Smiley and uses figurative language to portray imagery throughout.

Read More

New Madrid Earthquake Impact

68 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More

Fenimore Coopers Rhetorical Analysis

429 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

Imagery In Mark Twain's Life On The Mississippi

659 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

How Does Mark Twain Use Dialogue In Huck Finn

252 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More

Comparing Jack London And The San Francisco Earthquake

518 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Mark Twain's Rhetorical Analysis

187 Words | 1 Pages

Twain proceeds with his vivid metaphors which he calls experiments. He persuades his readers to examine the ill traits of humanity and see the world through his eyes. One example of this is when he describes an article about how three monks were burnt

Read More

Literary Analysis Of Twain's Two Ways Of Seeing A River

711 Words | 3 Pages

Twains essay “Two Ways of seeing a River” shows a complex usage of literary tropes. Throughout the text twain establishes a love for the beauty and features of the river; however, The text transitions this voice to one in which only the purpose of the river is seen. The river becomes linked to twain through these viewpoints. This allows for a Pedagogy to develop in which a Master-Student relationship is created. To create the pedagogical link between twain and the river we must first begin to construct the context, which through irony the text begins to craft the master and novice perspective.

Read More

Racism And Slavery In Huck Finn

516 Words | 3 Pages

Twain’s perspective on slavery and ideas regarding racism had been a source of debate. This theme of racism and slavery and Twain’s perception of it is developed throughout the “plot” events of the book. Twain was passionately anti-slavery during his

Read More

Morals In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

707 Words | 3 Pages

Mark Twain never fails to wrap a life lesson in a quick wit and cover it with humorous obstacles. After I read it, I found myself asking how often I had the courage to stick to what I thought to be right--regardless of society’s perceptions of my beliefs. Twain may oftentimes be regarded an author of adolescent novels, but I find his writing to be a challenging read. Not only in the fact that the phrasing and vocabulary takes some getting used to, but also because he had this uncanny ability to see the problems in society and write about it, all the while disregarding the boundaries of what was ‘socially acceptable.’ His flamboyant writing style makes this a good read for anyone with a sense of

Read More

Huck Finn Civil War Analysis

889 Words | 4 Pages

Through religious hypocrisy, Twain ridicules the white citizens that constantly go to church, but do the opposite of what is morally just. In the beginning of the book, Widow Douglas demands that Huck prays everyday, yet while she is trying to teach Huck about religion and how he must behave, she owns a slave, contradicting everything that she’s teaching. Twain’s main purpose in satirizing different aspects of American society is to open the eyes of the reader to the social atrocities embedded in the everyday lives of Southerners after the Civil War. By using situational irony, grotesque, parody, deflation and farce, Twain succeeds in poking fun at the South’s attempt at social reconstruction after they lost the “war between the states” in 1865. Mark Twain uses humor to develop the different themes of social development within his novel.

Read More

Satire And Irony In Mark Twain's A Presidential Candidate

768 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

More about What Is The Mood Of The San Francisco Earthquake

Related Topics

Open Document