The true essence of human nature is seen during times of great hardships as can be seen comparing Pericles' Funeral Oration and the plague in Thucydides', The History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides accounts for many different aspects of justice, power, and human nature through his text. The order, the style of his writing, choice of words, and relations of what he believes actually happened, allows the reader to make different inferences about the message he's trying to convey. The juxtaposition of the two stories portrays many different characteristics to investigate and analyze.

The question can be raised, why compare the funeral oration and the plague with each other, the answer simply lies in its order. Thucydides shows the reader the differences between what is seen of power, human nature, and justice by placing the plague right after the funeral oration. There is a great shift between these...