Comparison of Jack London´s The Story of an Eyewitness and Jon Lee Anderson´s Leaving Desire

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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.

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