Juxtaposition Between The White City And The Black City

The Chicago World Fair is an extraordinary attraction during the contrasting Gilded Age as innovations were constantly forming and shifting the world into a new age of technology. Celebrating Columbus's discovery of America, millions of people and many familiar faces such as Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Thomas Edison and etc., came together in the “White City” of Chicago to witness a dreamlike fantasy. Furthermore, the fair is an impactful influence formed by the architect, Daniel Burnham, and created a proud unification within the country. However, the fair is also the making of one of the first serial killers in American history, H.H Holmes. Holmes trapped people inside his “hotel” and committed murder to an estimated count of 200 people. The

Larson uses this to display the different effects the fair has in the city. Contrasting “garbage” and “clean,” he displays a new and improved Chicago after the fair commences. Furthermore, the new “White City” introduces many benefits from the fair such as ambulance services and electric streetlights; this serves as a positive and innovative effect for the readers. Moreover, Chicago’s major transformation from the “smoke and garbage” of the “Black City” shows how much of an impact the surreal innovations of the Fair exhibits on the harsh reality outside of the dreaming city. The “Black City’s” expansion also kept growing as it got “bigger, taller, and richer” but also “dirtier, darker, and more dangerous” to convey the actuality of Chicago (27-28). Larson contrasts “bigger” and “dirtier” to show the readers that the more expansion of buildings, the more trash will get thrown around. He uses this to convey the reality of what’s going to happen when the fair is built. Throughout the novel, he shows the readers how the effect of the dreamlike fair actually causes a harmful impact in the city after being torn down. Furthermore, Larson continues to contrast “taller and richer” and “darker and more dangerous” to illustrate how the high class is going to cause more corruption onto the city itself. This conveys to the readers as a depraved society brainwashing the citizens to do unlawful acts and proves that the reality of the city is horrifying. Overall, Larson displays the difference between the “Black City” and the “White City” in order to contrast the harsh and frightening state of Chicago to the whimsical and wistful imagination of the