Paradise Built in Hell Essay - 896 Words

In this book â€Å"A Paradise Built in Hell: the extraordinary communities that arise in disaster,† by Rebecca Solnit. Solnit discusses the human nature of individuals amongst disasters. Solnit writes in her first chapter â€Å"A millennial good fellowship: The San Francisco Earthquake† captures different accounts of individuals from the 1906 earthquake. There are five sections in this chapter that Solnit will discuss the traits of people in catastrophes. â€Å"The Mizpah Cafà ©Ã¢â‚¬  Solnit describes the kind acts of a citizen Mrs. Anna Amelia Holshouer fed the people and gave them a place to come and gave them a place to come and relax and about they just lost everything â€Å"Disaster requires an ability to embrace contradiction in both the minds of those trying†¦show more content†¦(p36)† Solnit describes how strong the military force was during this time. She depicts the government force to be so cruel and no sympathy for those who had no supplie s such as: food, medicine, and water. The government had such a strong presence when people should be helping the people in need that just suffered a disaster. Solnit even asked â€Å"how can you define looting by getting medicine and food† â€Å"total demoralization doesn’t describe the mood of the city and there was no evidence that riots were likely but the city got the national guard troop anyways (and the governor kept them there even after the mayor requested their removal) (p.37). This supports the claim that government officials thought that citizens would not act civil but that stereotype is stamped on human nature as is. â€Å"The stories have but one beginning and one end they begin with the criminal idiocy of the military; the end with the surmounting heroism of the citizen.† (p43) This section Solnit introduced philosophical ideas of human nature and applies his ideas to her own ideas. James was also a part of the 1906 he witnessed people snap into action when this disaster took place. Privileged or not everyone was equal; James later wrote an essay on comparing the world to an earthquake. His essay described how everyone united as equals to survive. He also talks about his ideas about human nature and pragmatism. He also explains that your surrounding environmentShow MoreRelatedEvil in Disguise in John Milton ´s Paradise Lost793 Words   |  4 Pagespoint of view of Satan and in such a way that he appears to be the heroic figure of the tale. Satan is given lines to uplift the demons of hell, seeming to empower them and as he sets off to derail the lives of Adam and Eve, the insight the reader has into the thoughts of the Devil almost make him appear to be the hero. 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