The San Francisco Earthquake Critical Analysis

In the article “The San Francisco Earthquake” written by Mark Twain, is written to talk about an earthquake that occurred. Author Twain uses humor to highlight his purpose throughout the article. “The San Francisco Earthquake” written Jack London, ( a different article) writes about a different earthquake that struck the earth. Author London uses The descriptive detail to describe the city dying throughout the piece. Twain and London both write about the subject of an earthquake Although, Twain uses humor to show society flaws and people’s reactions, while London uses vigorous detail to explain the falling and death of the city itself. In the Mark Twain article he uses humor to tie back that there are many societal flaws. He starts off by

Twain writes “The first shock brought down two or three organ pipes in the church. The minister, with uplifted hands, was just closing the services. He glanced up, hesitated, and said: However, we will omit the benediction! And the next instant there was a vacancy in the atmosphere where he had stood.” This explains how people left from church, the place that protects them the most, sll because people in this situation can 't handle the overall stress of the situation. Another section from his article closes out his piece by saying “After the first shock, an Oakland minister said: Keep your seats! There is no better place to die than this.-- and added after the third: but outside is good enough! He then skipped out the back door.” This comes back to the humor to show the flaws of people. This uses humor because knowing that this is a church and a minister they still choose to go

London 's first paragraph states in the middle of the paragraph states “ San Francisco is gone.” He does this to add extreme effect to the fact that the city is gone. The first paragraph talks all about how the city is wiped out with repetitive synonyms all tying back to the city being torn apart. Paragraph two, yet a small paragraph, has a huge meaning to it involving the smoke. It talks about how the smoke lingers over the city. The meaning in this is that the smoke is suffocating the people and the city. Not literally, but it is slowly taking the city until it can no longer breathe/live. This applies to the purpose because you can clearly see that the city is defeated and being engulfed by the