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.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
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.
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I noticed the things we talked about in class such as the workers going on strikes because the jobs were given to the immigrants and someone acquiring a job through connections with an authoritative figure (when Sol Bloom got the authority to create the midway of the Chicago fair through Mike De Young). Also, flaws of Chicago seem to surface the more the Burnham works on the fair and new problems arise in the process of fixing an old one (sanitary water system, fire hydrants, increased crime activity leading to police force).
ReplyDeleteWhen you described about H.H. Holmes and his crimes and murders. That brought up a very gruesome and distinct memory after I read about Julia's murder. When H.H. Holmes wanted an abortion, Julia completely agrees, probably out of love. Before the abortion took place, Julia went to the Crowe place and told them about her sisters wedding as well as the child that she is about to bear. After that, she went to the operating room for the abortion only to find herself unconscious. Instead oh Holmes of burning her, he calls his friend to strip the body of its flesh. Then he asked Mr. Chappell, another one of his friends to use the bones, Holmes formed it into a skeleton and Chappell completely agrees. Trust is a key factor in this amazing book because during this time, profit is everything, no matter whether its business or selling human parts.
ReplyDeleteThis also plays on a crueler theme of the book, how Larson keeps repeating that "Chicago doesn't waste anything", and I see this in Holmes as well, because he uses every single body part for some purpose, no matter how gruesome.
DeleteThis also brings up the incompetence of the police force that Burnham hired to keep crimes and murders at bay, but it is clearly not up to today's standards. Chicago is the city where people just disappear; I found it a bit ridiculous how even when people suspect Holmes of having murdered Julia, Pearl, & Emoline, like Mrs. Lawrence, NO ONE reports him to the police! It just shows how severly futile it is.
I found it interesting what immense pressure was put onto Burnham, Olmstead, and the others to finish the fair by Dedication Day at first until they realized how impossible that would be. When they first came up with the idea, it was such a surreal job that they didn't really pay attention to reality. However when the precious little time they had started slipping away everyone put such drastic pressure on themselves. Burnham lost one of his closest friends and contributor to the fair, Root. Yet he still didn't give himself time to grieve or visit his family. Olmstead on the other hand seems to constantly be on his death bed with all the work and stress he has dealing with this and Biltmore and yet he continutes on. They all know the success and reputation of Chicago and even America is resting on their shoulders.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I saw throughout the book was how H. H. Holmes and The White City are a type of mirror image in a way. People are attracted and drawn to Holmes, much in the same way they are to the White City & Chicago, and are blinded by the beauty and charm of it. The corruption and wrongdoings are not seen easily in either.
ReplyDeleteOverall, that reveals the theme of the gilded age as well. I'm glad you mentioned this because you are able to prove that with the gilded age, corruption is vast among the nation, yet with pride and nationalism of this new land, people are unable to look past "beauty" and almost seems as if they are reluctant to do so because they are in awe of the moment of the growth of America.
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