Devil in the White City Blog 2

The building of a fair, takes time, money, and dedication. A fair as extreme takes all of those things times ten. In the story, “Devil in the White City”, so many men and woman give up months of their time to put on this extreme World Fair in Chicago. The question that remains is whether this fair was put on for the benefit of the people or a result of the arrogance of the people who put this fair together.

Although a lot of the things made and placed on the campus of this exciting fair, have the guests best interests in mind, a constant reminder that this fair must out Eifel, Eifel, seems to demonstrate the arrogance among the fairs constructors. “In a great blur of snow and silvery glass the building’s roof – that marvel of late nineteenth- century hubris, enclosing the greatest volume of unobstructed space in history collapsed to the floor blow.” This moment in the story had to be a devastating time for many. Not only did it affect the workers of the World Fair, in addition, it probably put an immense amount of stress on the Burnham. He was the one put in charge, and anything that went wrong, was directed right back to him. Now that this had occurred, he and his colleges were now driven to not only make this a huge event for Chicago, but more importantly, make this an event bigger than the event in Paris. With this as constant reminder to themselves, displays to us readers the arrogance that they possessed. Everyone who participated in the creation of the fair at one point had good intention, but also had bigger intentions to be bigger and better. The World Fair was the opportunity Chicago took to show they can be big too. They can be even bigger, and the construction workers and other employees fought through tough circumstances to be the best. Several people even died in the process, and some weren’t even properly recognized. The fair seemed to be more important due arrogance.

When the fair was finally open, it was not quite complete. There was still debris around and exhibits were not complete. The supposed main attraction, the Ferris Wheel, was not completed either. Something that I found very interesting was that when the Ferris Wheel was finally completed, it wasn’t treated like the main attraction of the World Fair. “ ‘It is impossible for the non-mechanical mind to understand how such a Brobdingnag continues to keep itself erect,’ wrote Julian Hawthorne, son of Nathaniel; ‘it has no visible means of support- none that appear adequate. The spokes look like cobwebs; they are after the fashion of those on the newest make of bicycles.’” The review of this Ferris Wheel, to out Eifel Eifel, doesn’t seem so great, and with one full rotation taking 20 minutes, it is not something many even wanted to see. The goals of the head contractors and consturcters of the fair, have been warped into a view that seems wrong. This fair is no longer for the people, but for the satisfaction of themselves. This goal displays arrogance.