Chicago Dialectical Journal

Using descriptive diction such as “eerie” and “swamp” readers can imagine an unpleasant city rustling with filth and crime. Larson exposes that Chicago had “auras of mosquitoes” in its midst. Readers automatically see Chicago as a filthy and troublesome town when they associate it with mosquitoes. This view of Chicago created by Larson further achieves his purpose to show the downside of Chicago during the time the World Fair was being constructed and attended. When the World Fair was finished, Larson described the nights, “the lamps that laced every building and walkway produced the most elaborate demonstration of electric illumination ever attempted” (254). Larson says the lamps “laced” the walkways in the white city which allows readers to picture the city in a whimsical way. The feeling of the word “laced” sits with readers in a positive way. Thus, Larson can achieve the purpose of forcing readers to see the white city in a luxurious fashion. Also, Larson mentions that the lighting was “elaborate.” Readers see the white city as a sophisticated and lavish place rather than how they see the black city. Larson again is able to persuade readers into believing the magic of the white city. Larson calls upon imagery to construct the two sides of Chicago.

During the year of 1893, times in Chicago were rough. The economy was failing and there were many union strikes. There was a significant global economic decline which affected a young and growing America tremendously. When compared with other metropolitan cities like New York, Chicago was seen as the Wild West and it didn’t have a good reputation. It was difficult to find jobs and the working conditions as well as the pay were poor. In 1890, Chicago would win the bid for hosting the world fair. This would put a lot of pressure on Chicago due to the fact that no one believed the Paris Fair, along with the Eiffel Tower, could be outdone. However, with the introduction of the Ferris Wheel the world was shocked. The fair changed the world’s perception

The book The Devil In the White City by Erik Larson re-tells the story of Chicago’s World Fair, while H.H. Holmes, also known as “America’s first serial killer”, emerges as a dark force within the fair. Switching back and forth between the experiences of the head fair administrator, Burnham, and the other directors along with the evils of Holmes, the reader begins to understand the world of tragedy and crime that lies behind the public’s excitement. From a devastating storm to the deaths of multiple builders, suspense builds as tragedy is followed by more tragedy. Through the use of contrasting ideas and ethical clauses highlighted by symbolisms and descriptions within the book, Erik Larson creates an underlying argument that one’s pursuit of pride and success often causes destruction and comes at the price of another’s well-being.

When acknowledging the turnout of Chicago’s fair, Larson uses figurative language to demonstrate the contesting forces of good and evil and to examine the extent to which Chicago stretched the fair’s potential. Larson writes, “Chicago has disappointed her enemies and astonished the world” (30). Larson uses personification when he says that “Chicago has disappointed her enemies…” and is giving Chicago a human behavior. This strategy emits a positive connotation to the reader . The use of figurative language makes the reader look at Chicago as having achieved a great honor by hosting the fair. It also shows that Chicago can create something so miraculous in a time of such hardship and need for ingenuity and amidst the evil waiting within the shadows of the White City. When describing the tension in the top floor of the Rookery while the architects were revealing their drawings for the fair, Larson writes “As the light began to fade, the architects lit the library’s gas jets, which hissed like mildly perturbed cats” (115) and he uses figurative language to help the reader grasp the importance and anticipation of this moment. By comparing the library’s gas jets to “mildly perturbed cats,” the reader gains a sense of agitation, anticipation, and the anxiety that the architects were feeling in that moment. Larson creates a negative and rather comforting connotation by using this simile to describe the room’s tension. The way that Larson describes this moment leads the reader to imagine it to be

     The Fair, with its mix of East and West and everything in between, became a microcosm of the country that was building it. In it, you see all the conflicts that were going on in the country at the time. Probably the most obvious is the labor that built the fair. At this point in history, the working class of the country, and indeed the world, were slowly, but unstoppably moving toward unionization, fairer working conditions and change that is very much the same as the working class of today. You also saw the unchecked, without government regulated capitalism, and the very strong personalities of the men who ran the fair. In my opinion, it was the personalities of the leaders of the fair, as much as anything, that resulted in its amazing pace and scale of construction being pulled off. Burnham is a

In 1890, Chicago is a quickly developing city and needing to substantiate itself something particularly to the more settled Eastern urban communities of the United States. Chicago wins its offer to have the World 's Fair, drove by its gigantic urban pride. Before long, two of the city 's driving engineers, Daniel Burnham and John Root, are given masterful control over the structures at the Fair.

1. “It was the details of the building that gave him the most pleasure… There would be a large basement with hidden chambers and a subbasement for the permanent storage of sensitive material… He could hardly imagine the pleasure that would full his days when the building was finished and flesh-and-blood women moved among its features. As always, the thought aroused him” (67).

The Chicago Chicago was famous for was the filthy, disease-riddles, crime-filled, black Chicago, while the fair created a different Chicago: the white city, a place of beauty, wonder, history, and all the good parts of a city one should have. “Some wept at its beauty” (5). The white city was beautiful, with its exotic exhibits from all over the world. The fair was more than anyone could have dreamed, filled with whole villages imported from numerous countries, extotic dancers, a theatre, new foods, the backdrop of the lake, flowers, and island Olmstead worked so hard to make perfect, and many exhibit halls in beautiful buildings. The people of the world loved the Chicago World fair, and didn’t want it to end. Probably some of the most important parts of the white city were its’ pure water, clean public restrooms, electric lights, a sewer processing system, and an ambulance service (247). The white city ended up showing the world what a real city should provide for its’ people. In severe contrast, the black city was dirty and dangerous. There were “unlit alleys that smelled of rotted fruit” (31), and the bodies of horses, cats, rats, and various animals laying around, bursting in the summer and occasionally poisoning the water. Chicago suffered an outbreak of cholera and typhoid that killed ten percent of the population due to unclean, foul water (109). At the same time, the rest of the black

During a period known as the Gilded Age, one city sets out to create an exposition that would secure them dominance in an ever-expanding society. Chicago was set to be the home of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, an attraction meant to showcase the success and prosperity of the nation. This historical event showcased the prosperity and light of the city as well as the poor and dark parts that came with the building of this fair through two essential characters: Daniel Burnham and H.H. Holmes. Burnham’s determination to build the fair despite many challenges reveals the light of the windy city while Holmes’ and his deceptive evil brings awareness to the dark parts of the city during an economic depression.

I exhale a long, frustrated sigh as I look around the old, battered up, brown and decaying café. It was amidst the start of the French Revolution, and circumstances were heating up. Everyone were in a small groups chattering away at nothing in particular as I stand at the slightly raised platform, waiting for the last few representatives to come. I, Pascal Beaumont, was the organizer of the raid that will be held at the Bastille, in Paris, on July 14, 1789. Tomorrow was July 14, 1789, the big day. Such an evil thing to do, some might think, but not in my situation. I was thirsty for revenge, for the blood that belonged to the royalty, for death. That rascal, King Louis XVI would pay for the lives he took from the peasants. They would never

Chapter 8 Protagonist/s: Marie-Laure LeBlanc/ Werner Pfennig Antagonist/s: Germans Time: 9th August 1944 Summary: Allied artillery begins shelling Saint-Malo again. Von Rumpel becomes delirious from his illness and attempts to search the house once again.

The World’s Fair benefited Chicago because it brought new jobs. Clearly, the Fair needed workers to build its structures. Larson gave an example of where workers were needed when he stated, “Workers laid foundations of immense timbers in crisscrossed layers in accord with Root’s grillage principle, then used steam-powered derricks to raise the tall posts of iron and steel that formed each building’s frame. They cocooned the frames in scaffolds of wood and faced each frame with hundreds of thousands of wooden planks to create walls capable of accepting two thick layers of staff” (Larson 144). The World’s Fair had many buildings that needed to be built and “hundreds of thousands of wooden planks” that needed to be framed to create the walls of

Using descriptive diction and syntax, Larson conveys how much work and energy this world fair project required. The manner of how “dredges the size of floating barns gnawed at the lakeshore” expresses how enormous the scale of the fair had been and how intensely the workers had to be. Pace accelerating, the polysyndeton of “shovels and wheelbarrows and horse-drawn graders” drives a brisk rhythm to indicate how nearly excessive the work was. Using the alliteration of “slowly scraped,” Larson delays the pace to amplify the thoroughness of the

A theme within the novel is that a person should always overcome obstacles that may come in their way. While building the fair Burnham had experienced many deaths of key individuals that helped make it a success. The death of Root who was Burnham’s partner died suddenly while on the Titanic. Burnham was still able to overcome the many obstacles and made the fair a complete success by hiring Atwood as the designer of the fair.

Burnham and Root acknowledged the enormous work awaiting for them, but no one realized the true amount of work needed to be completed in such a short amount of time until there was no turning back. This suggests that one of theme’s in the book is American patriotism and pride. For example, Burnham and Root not only had to focus on the work and time, but they also could not escape from all the pressure from everyone, which included, all of Chicago, New York, and the entire country. The entire country was hoped for the best because the U.S wanted to surpass France and the Eiffel Tower. This passage made me realize the amount of pressure Burnham and Root were experiencing from not only the U.S, but from a whole different country as well. Failure was not an option, and there was not even time for people to stop and ponder about everyone affected if the fair were to fail.