Part Four: Cruelty Revealed

Part four finalized the story portion of the novel. Finally, Holmes was caught and was sentenced to death by being hanged. As the crime of the murders were revealed, corruption, that people have been blinded to, has been officially revealed to and opened every eye. Corruption, as it came along during the gilded ages of prosperity, was shown to its depth and further exposed itself in this last section. Overall, we were able to see that corruption was taken far and is a very dangerous factor that had to come up with success. This is paralleled and seen through Holmes' murders because Holmes was always prepared with his murders and was ready in order to stay concealed. This shows how the corruptible nature of America was able to proceed so smoothly.

Lastly, the epilogue of the book shows the effects of the Fair. The Fair was quite unsuccessful, but it did bring America unity and definitely a lot of advancements. Without the Fair being given to Chicago, great architects like Burnham and Root would have not been given a chance to reveal their abilities and talent for creating amazing architectures, such as the Ferris Wheel. With the theme of the gilded age, in the epilogue we are able to see that with power comes much cruelty and wrongdoings. In order to be able to be successful, this must be balanced out well and America has learned a great lesson once the nation was able to come out of this dark period.

So I have a few questions for all of you guys. Do you think the fair was worth the time and money? (Especially with the crime that came along)

Part Three: In the White City

The fair has just opened to the public, and though many things still are yet to be finished [such as the Ferris wheel, cleaning, landscaping, etc.] it is seen as a success in the eyes of the public. Even more astounding to the public is that, in such a time of economic hardship, the fair was built at all! Introducing the newest innovations, technologies, patents, inventions, and foods the fair is truly a pivotal and marking point of the Gilded Age; it is a representation on it's own of how industrialization and the economic boom have changed America imperatively. Even in a time of economic hardship, people still have the leisure time and money to come see the fair. We also see the recognition that the World Fair is receiving from other countries when Spanish royalty Infanta Eulalia pays Chicago a visit-- especially the fact that she seems to secretly like Chicago at the end of her trip. We also see the declining of traditional social norms of females in this part, as nonconforming behavior is steadily being excused of the women. They now can show a little bit more skin, and have more freedom in the city life than ever before.
As the fair progresses, we see H. H. Holmes' murders also gaining momentum, as it is implied in the book that he has killed countless of his guests at his hotel. This symbolizes that as the prosperity in America grows, corruption too grows with it.

Part III: In the White City

This was the opening day of the fair. The day when all the hard work was about to pay off. The day that joy and pride among the people of Chicago. The determination of Daniel Burnham is shown through the finishing of the fair when he pushed Olmsted and Ferris to finish their projects. There was unfinished projects such as the landscape, walkways and roads, and the ever-glorified Ferris Wheel. Plus attendance for the fair was abnormally low due to the fact that this was in the midst of the  Panic of 1893, so because of the economic situation of the people, it was hard to afford the fair and the prizes and goods that came with it. On the other side of the book, H.H. Holmes is continuing with his murder spree with victims like Anna. For me as a reader, H.H. Holmes's murders are very predictable throughout the story because of the situation of the city as well as the government because everyone is so caught up with the fair and the city that majority of the people don't know what's going on "underneath" the city.

Part Two: An Awful Fright

Wrongdoings of the city continues to grow. Crimes and death, like the murder of Ned Conner's wife and child conducted by Holmes, grows and the city grows weary of the construction period of the fair. Root and Olmsted work to their best, but with severe weather and issues occurring, the project constantly gets pushed back further. Both, persistent and hardworking, don't stop and go to every measure to finish the fair as fast as they can. Though the fair brought Chicago benefits of job availability to many, the drive by the many architects put perfection above all. This caused many workers to suffer from excessive work and often many got fired if they didn't meet up to the expectation. This is very crucial in the second section of the book because it shows how the necessity to prove America's superiority is put above all else. Chicago is boosted with pride and willpower to create a fair that will live up to the image of America's capabilities as a new and independent nation. For example, the World Fair is being constructed with perfection to live up to significant structures in other countries such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. With ego and pride being emphasized, many architects are worked up and burdened, causing workers to feel patronized and suppressed by the conditions they are given.

Overall, America is benefiting from the World Fair in the sense that some sense of unity is provided because of the pride-aspect of the reputation of this big commitment. However, as the title of the book says, the "Devil" is coming into the White City because corruption continues, strikes and uproars occur, and the people grasps a sense of hardship when trying to keep America's golden opportunity to rise as a powerful nation in progress. 

Part One: Frozen Music

The gilded age. This concept is shown vastly through the first section of the book through the introduction of the city of Chicago. Chicago depicts the gilded age through its expansion of industrialization and growth of urbanization, while crime and unjust acts of the world continues to spread. America shifted from a rural country to an innovative and modern nation and through the constant changes of the world, America is developing to reveal its abilities of becoming a dominant world power (which is quite crucial because the shift of power from the East is shown immensely). Overall, with Chicago becoming the city to be the new location of the World Fair, America is given a great opportunity to show its authority. The World Fair displays "dominance/power" and with this chance, the Western hemisphere is rising up as a crucial representative of new power and furthermore represents the gilded age of America.