In his painting, View of the Great Fire of Pittsburgh, artist William C. Wall depicts the despair and opportunities the fire caused. The painting itself is a direct reference to the fire that occurred in Pittsburgh,on April 10, 1845, that destroyed approximately one-third of the city and cost between $6-12 million in damage. Unfortunately, frame builder and artist, William C. Wall, had a first-hand encounter to the negative effects of the fire; his shop, Plain & Fancy Portrait & Picture Frames, was completely eradicated. This experience is what drove William C. Wall to paint the landscape, View of the Great Fire of Pittsburgh, along with his other painting Pittsburgh after the Fire from Boyd's Hill, which illustrates the outcome of the fire …show more content…
and to provide the viewer with the feeling he felt. The landscape is structured so it seems like the viewer is standing on top of a hill overlooking the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers and the city itself. Wall wanted the perspective to influence the viewer into feeling what it felt like to have that first-hand experience. Moreover, Wall very faintly drew brown row boats on the river on looking their businesses and homes being consumed by the flames, further emphasizing the despair of having a first-hand experience. In continuation, the observer is instantly drawn to the dark, grey hues of the smoke and bright, vivid oranges of the fire overtaking most of the city. To heighten the importance, the sunset casts a light that seems to intensify the fire by making it the focal point of the painting. In the fire, the viewer can see the remains of buildings engulfed in the flames. And since the fire is still occurring, the viewer can assume that the damage is not done. In fact, the fire started at 2:00 in the afternoon and did not completely go out until around 9:00 p.m.. So, the view we are given in the landscape displays the sun is setting, thus, one can infer that the fire in the painting has not done all of its damage, demonstrating that even though the damage in the painting looks like a large amount, there is still more to come. Therefore, Wall is stressing the anguish that the fire was going to cause the city. At the same time, the scene illustrates the opportunities for growth presented by the fire.
Pittsburgh would not be as grand and industrious as it is today without the demolition. If the fire did not occur, our city may still be an 1800’s themed town instead of a metropolis. As Buster Moon stated in the movie Sing, “When you've reached rock bottom, there's only one way to go, and that's up.” So, the rebuilding of Pittsburgh began shortly after the fire with the financial help of other cities. Eventually, the city replaced the ruin with 400-500 new buildings, increasing the value of the city and allowing industry to flourish. Then, William C. Wall further demonstrates the upcoming growth of the city by splitting the painting vertically, illustrating that as one side is being destroyed, the other prospers. By doing this, Wall foreshadows the future of the city by saying that everything will turn out better in the end. Finally, the foreground of the painting signifies the aura of tranquility and making it seem as though everything is going to be fine in the end. Wall paints with lively, earthy greens and conveys a lot of foliage. By painting a great amount of shrubbery, Wall is able to highlight a metaphor relating the growth of the city to be like the growth of the
plants.
I read the book Braving the Fire. It takes place in the year 1863. The book is about a 15 year old boy from Maryland named Jem Bridwell. He lives on a farm with his father, grandfather, and their slaves. Because Maryland was a “border state” during the civil war, it was not considered part of the Confederacy, although most of the people living in Maryland at the time were for the Confederates. Jem’s father, Tom Bridwell, on the other hand had joined the Union Army because he believed in freeing the slaves and keeping the Union. James Bridwell, Jem’s grandfather, was completely against Tom’s being in the Union Army and the Union itself.
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 persona in the poem reacts to the power the wall has and realizes that he must face his past and everything related to it, especially Vietnam.
“A Wall of Fire Rising” is a story of poor peasant working man named Guy who is trying all his best to provide a decent living and a sincere meal and also desired the need to escape their native country for the greener meadows in America.
...he wall, he thinks about his rejected opportunities and his unbearable regret. As he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the realization that his life is ending in his catacombs dying with his finest wine. The catacombs, in which he dies, set the theme, and relate well with the story. Without the yellow wallpaper in the short story, the significance of the wallpaper would not mater, nor would it set the theme or plot. At night the wallpaper becomes bars, and the wallpaper lets her see herself as a women and her desire to free herself. She needs to free herself from the difficulties of her husband, and from her sickness. The settings in both, set up the elements of the stories and ads to the effect in both of the short stories.
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.
Walls did this by giving us a vivid imagination of how her life was. She was using imagery to show us how she lived, and how she had dealt with her life. She uses imagery well in two places. Once in the setting when she describes being burned by the fire then at the end of Section 3 where she is leaving for New York. Using imagery gives us a feeling of her adventure, and how practical her life really is. Walls also uses certains tones for different sections. It’s as if her life
...rting again. The fire itself was seen for miles and the heat was so intense that there was “hardly a building within a one block radius that was not scorched” (Reporter Front Page). Extinguished fire brands were found in all parts of the Eastern section of the city. Some brands were even found in Lakeside Park. The force of the gas explosions in the garage blew debris from E 2nd and Marr to half way down Ellis St. This shows just how large the fire actually was.
On Sunday, October 18, 1871 the largest fire Chicago has ever seen broke out. Hundreds died and thousands of homes were annihilated. Devistation towered over the city, ashes floated gracefully through the air as bodies, houses and cherished items burned. People ran in fear, holding their young, crying for the gone, searching for saftey. Searching for life. Searching for hope.
sure,on the Sunday evening of October 8, 1871 a blaze started in Mrs. O' leary's
On the evening of October 8, 1871 the worst recorded forest fire in North American
The house and property are seen as positive only when the narrator first describes them. Gilman uses the imagery to create an air of suspense and insinuates the narrator’s coming fall into insanity. The setting of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” in large part, leads to the narrator’s collapse. Almost instantly, the narrator’s already unstable mind perceives a ghostliness that begins to set her even more on edge.
The picture is trying to prove F. Scott Fitzgerald discontent for the moral decay that occurred in the 1920s by the face with the appearance of wealth, the colorful, inviting, and bright city, and the variety of colors used throughout the picture.
When asked the question "how do I fit into Philadelphia history?" I find it difficult to answer. To learn about a country can be simple or complicated depending on the topic that one approach it from. If I were to place myself my present self in the past when Philadelphia was just starting out I will most likely be a house servant, in another word a house slave. But if I were to place myself into the future as I am now, the Philadelphia that I envision will probably be different from its past and the present. The history of Philadelphia from my standpoint is complicated in a comprehensive manner, from how the city was started to what it is today. In 1681 William Penn received Philadelphia from King Charles the second and Thomas Holmes designed