The poem “Chicago,” by Carl Sandburg, and the story, “A City Ready to Burn,” by Jim Murphy, both descried the effects of “fire” on the city of Chicago using two distinctive methods. Sandburg presents a more positive picture of Chicago by identifying its positive attributes and feelings of hope despite its flaws. Murphy on the other hand describes the details of the layout of the city that lead up to the catastrophe demise known as the “Chicago Fire.” Both approaches are used to create a certain imagery of the city.
Both stories identify that Chicago has had its faults and reasons, which had lead to its downfall. In the poem “Chicago,” Sandburg acknowledges that Chicago is in atrocious place filled with crime with several examples. “They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen you painted women under gas
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lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again” (Sandburg). In the story: A City Ready to Burn,” Murphy describes the crime of the arrangement and architecture of the houses in the different class resulting in the destruction of so many houses in the Chicago fire. “The trouble was about two-thirds of the structures were made entirely of wood…the stone or brick exteriors hid wooden frames and floors, all topped with highly flammable tar or shingle roofs” (Murphy). In the poem, Sandburg began his poem by listing the names that the city has been called “proud to be Hog, Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.” These names create an image of distinct niches of Chicago where people live and work.
Murphy describes the city’s niches by listing the “…variety of businesses—paint factories, lumberyards, distilleries, gasworks, mills, furniture manufacturers, warehouses, and coal distributors.” He also mentions the three different characteristics of the middle-class, poorer, and wealthier districts. Murphy described the middle and poorer districts as “Lot sizes were small, and owners usually filled them up with cottages, barns, sheds, and outhouses—all made of fast- burning wood, naturally” (Murphy). He described the wealthier districts as “Stately stone and brick homes had wood interiors, and stood side by side with smaller wood-frame houses. Wooden stables and other storage buildings were common, and trees lined the streets and filled the yards” (Murphy). Each man used the living and working areas to paint a vivid picture of the Chicago
community. Criticism of the city for its make up is discussed in both writings. Murphy makes the critical remark that “Chicago in 1871 was a city ready to burn.” He made this negative statement due to the building construction and their close proximity to each other. Sandburg discusses how people have criticized the city, but he stands up for the hard working proud Chicagoans portraying them as living in a strong city. “And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.”
To appreciate a row house neighborhood, one must first look at the plan as a whole before looking at the individual blocks and houses. The city’s goal to build a neighborhood that can be seen as a singular unit is made clear in plan, at both a larger scale (the entire urban plan) and a smaller scale (the scheme of the individual houses). Around 1850, the city began to carve out blocks and streets, with the idea of orienting them around squares and small residential parks. This Victorian style plan organized rectangular blocks around rounded gardens and squares that separated the row houses from major streets. The emphasis on public spaces and gardens to provide relief from the ene...
In the book Heat Wave A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, by Eric Klinenberg expose how a number of social, political, and economical factors created one of the largest and most traumatic events in recent history. The Chicago heat wave in 1995 was a disaster, which led to over 700 heat-related deaths in Chicago over a five days period creating. Most of the victims of the heat wave were poor elderly residents of the city, who didn’t have any relative or were neglected by the public officials and was unable to purchase air-conditioning units for their home. Most of the elderly isolated themselves and refused to open windows or sleep outside in fear of crime. Alot of lives were loss or in destress because of isolation, poverty and media who played a major role by portraying the countless deaths on the natural disaster and highlighting of negative activities especially in the urban area
The Chicago Fire of 1871 In the 19th century, the population in Chicago was quickly rising to great numbers. In 1850, the population reached 30,000. Areas in all parts of Chicago started to become extremely over crowded, especially downtown. At this point, all structures were built out of wood, including buildings, streets, and even sidewalks (“Chicago Fire of 1871”). About one hundred days before the great fire occurred, not even an inch of rain had fallen throughout the city, and heavy, strong winds were blowing through Southwest.
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history. Practically overnight the great city of Chicago was destroyed. Before the fire there was a large drought causing everything to be dry and flammable, then a fire broke out in the O’Leary’s barn and spread throughout the city. Many attempts were made to put out the fire but there were too many errors and problems in the beginning. After the fire many people were left homeless and had to help build their city again (Murphy, 39)
The City of Detroit, Michigan, seems to be a city on the decline in America. Job prospects some of the lowest in the country and one of the only cities to be shrinking, rather than growing. There are a lot of problems Detroit is facing, one of them is there incidence rate for fires. Detroit is the number one city in America for house fires, not to mention their high rate of fires in the many vacant buildings throughout the city. There are many socioeconomic factors with the city that make the incident rates rise, and response less effective.
Mrs. Rayfield wrote a great article about the devastation left over after this massive fire. I found that her accounts were very detailed and had good pictures to go along with them. I decided to use this source in my essay because she also showed the good effect that the fire had on the city not only the bad. She had a complete different point of view.
People around the city went to bed, everything seemed relatively normal. Smoke dwindling into the dark night sky, the faint smell of burning wood. All normal for Chicago. Fires were a daily part of life for this wooden city. Near the time of 2 a.m. the fire didn’t seem so normal and average anymore. A mean flame was being born, it was blazing to life.
sure,on the Sunday evening of October 8, 1871 a blaze started in Mrs. O' leary's
Determining whether the God you praise and worship is choleric because of your presence by the sins you’ve created is at never ending battle in the 17th-18th centuries. Upon the Burning of Our House is a poem, with nine stanzas, written by Anne Bradstreet explaining her understanding and ability to live and learn from sin to God. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a work, written as a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, who preaches to all the non-Puritan sinners. His belief is that if they don’t convert and take blame for their sins, God’s anger toward them will be unbearable and force them to the pits of hell. Analyzing Bradstreet’s and Edwards’ works, a reader can distinguish the personality of the two writers and the different views of God
This investigation is based on the assumption that gentrification with all its troubles can’t be prevented and is an inherent part of every city. What are the negative impacts of gentrification? What are the underlying mechanisms that feed these impacts? What drives these mechanisms? What would be an alternative scenario?
When Willy and Linda purchased their home in Brooklyn, it seemed far removed from the city. Willy was young and strong and he believed he had a future full of success. He and his sons cut the tree limbs that threatened his home and put up a hammock that he would enjoy with his children. The green fields filled his home with wonderful aromas. Over the years, while Willy was struggling to pay for his home, the city grew and eventually surrounded the house.
Jim Murphy’s novel The Great Fire and Lorraine Hansberry’s play Raisin in the sun became grateful and optimistic during the hardships and disasters of the city of Chicago.They went through the disaster of a lost 6,500 dollars in Raisin in the Sun but in The Great Fire the dilemma was that a fire spread and the effects it had on Chicago was tragic but helpful.Chicago is a city that can overcome great hardships and adversity such as a Great fire.
Gentrification is a highly important topic that has not only been occurring all over the United States, but especially closer than we may have thought. San Francisco is home to hundreds of thousands of people who have been a part of how amazing this city has become. San Francisco is one of the most visited places in the world with many of its famous landmarks, endless opportunities not only for daytime fun but also has an amazing nightlife that people cannot get enough of. People come for a great time and could not be done without the help of the people who have grown up to experience and love this city for what it truly is. The cost of living in such an important city has definitely had its affect of lower income San Francisco residents. For decades we have seen changes occurring in parts of San Francisco where minorities live. We have seen this in Chinatown, SOMA, Fillmore district, and especially the Mission district.
In Jane Jacobs’s acclaimed The Life and Death of Great American Cities, she intricately articulates urban blight and the ills of metropolitan society by addressing several binaries throughout the course of the text. One of the more culturally significant binaries that Jacobs relies on in her narrative is the effectively paradoxical relationship between diversity and homogeneity in urban environments at the time. In particular, beginning in Chapter 12 throughout Chapter 13, Jacobs is concerned greatly with debunking widely held misconceptions about urban diversity.
During the publication of “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg, Chicago was the largest city in the Midwest which established itself as an industrial metropolis with a population that doubled every twenty years. However, the city’s accomplishments were often hidden behind its rising crime rates and poor working conditions. In the poem “Chicago,” Carl Sandburg aims to defend the greatness of Chicago through images of the city throughout each part of the poem.