Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Part II Devil Blog Question

The title of the second part of this novel is "An Awful Fight."  In what ways and/or for what characters was this section an awful fight?

11 comments:

  1. The most obvious reason this section is called “An Awful Fight” is that it’s a description of Burnham’s experience building the fair. During construction, Burnham has to battle lazy workers, uncooperative weather, unions, committees, sick architects, and a rapidly ticking clock as he struggles to build a respectable-looking fair in time for its opening. This fight is truly “awful” in how Burnham is able to achieve as much as he does, despite the problems he faces. “An Awful Fight” could also apply to Olmstead as he too struggles to complete his work while being very ill and not receiving very much help.
    How the title applies to H. H. Holmes is not abundantly clear. He faces some sort of a fight in his struggles to acquire and murder women and run a fraudulent business without getting caught. In this section, he has to fight suspicions and accusations as well. “An Awful Fight” could also very well apply to the women Holmes murders as they are attempting to fight his charm and wit and then fighting for their lives.
    Perhaps “An Awful Fight” applies to Patrick Eugene Joseph Prendergast as he fights for the mayor’s reelection. More generally, “An Awful Fight” could apply to the city of Chicago in general as they fight to secure a reputation as a cultured and respectable city in the eyes of the world by building the world’s fair. It seems as though the section title could apply to a variety of characters in the book and perhaps it’s meant to.

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  2. With the opening of The World’s Fair only months away, this section is titled “An Awful Fight” due to all of the obstacles thrown at Burnham. Literally everything that can go wrong with the fair goes wrong. Burnham receives pressure to build a fair that can surpass Paris, and the fair has to be built in a time crunch. As he works to try and accomplish the work given to him, he is critiqued for the treatment of workers and the architecture of his buildings is questioned. Whenever progress is made, the weather reverses it quickly. Plus, Olmstead is suffering from illness and losing his partner only made the landscape issues worse. Despite all of these tribulations, the work continues.
    At the same time, Holmes is losing his touch to cover everything up. The title of this section can relate to Holmes because his practice is getting slightly out of control. The Lawrence’s, and the Cigrand’s are not giving up the search of Emeline and the Lawrence’s especially have connected her disappearance to Holmes. Creditors are constantly banging at his door looking for money, and Holmes is beginning to struggle to keep them away. He even remarks that his time in Chicago is coming to an end, due to the suspicion of his character. He has to fight to keep himself innocent off all the accusations flying his way.

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  3. In this section, America fights for recognition, Chicago fights to beat a deadline, people fight for their lives, and sanity fights for its maintenance. One of the driving forces behind the creation of the World Fair was America’s need to stand out globally. Larson constantly talks of “out-Eiffeling Eiffel”. In this time period when the United States was molding an identity, citizens required a symbol that could define the country’s supremacy for the entire world. Burnham received many ideas of how to compete with France’s new tower. Endless hours were spent designing an exposition that would awe every continent. If that wasn’t enough of an obstacle, the architects had an impossible time limit. All of Chicago held its breath as the city fought to accomplish the unspeakable. Every Chicagoan suppressed hopelessness for the completion of the Fair.
    Meanwhile, Holmes captivated victims mercilessly. A foot print on the door of his lethal vault proves an emblem to Part II. The woman inside, Emeline Cigrand, had fought to escape the label of murder victim. The struggle for life is an undeniable human instinct that all of Holmes’s victims experienced, including Julia and Pearl Conners.
    The link between the fights exposed in both story lines is the fight for sanity. When Holmes’s victims realized something was off, their conscious fought with itself. Prendergast is obviously on the brink of insanity, while chasing a wild dream of being pals with the mayor. Olmstead is also fighting to maintain his mental health as his plans are bombarded with nature’s elements combined with his deteriorating physical status. The struggle to achieve a higher purpose turns into a struggle for sanity.
    Meanwhile, Holmes captivated victims mercilessly. A delicate foot print on the door of his lethal vault proves an emblem to Part II. The woman inside, Emeline Cigrand, had fought to escape the label of murder victim. The struggle for life is an undeniable human instinct that all of Holmes’s victims experienced, including Julia and Pearl Conners.
    The link between the fights exposed in both story lines is the fight for sanity. When Holmes’s victims realized something was off, their conscious fought with itself. Prendergast is obviously on the brink of insanity, while chasing a wild dream of being pals with the mayor. Olmstead is also fighting to maintain his mental health as his plans are bombarded with nature’s elements combined with his deteriorating physical status. The struggle to achieve a higher purpose turns into a struggle for sanity.

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  4. The title of part two, An Awful Fight, has several meanings. The most obvious of these meanings is Burnham vs. fair production. He is constantly fighting to stay on track with the fair. Problem after problem come up and Burnham was the person responsible to fix it. He was forced to make many of the major decisions by himself after the death of his partner Root. Pressure mounts as the date of the opening nears. Between fires, rain, snow and wind buildings get behind schedule. It doesn’t help that reporters, photographers, and wealthy men all criticize and doubt Burnham’s capability of completing the fair on time.

    Another fight portrayed is between Olmstead and himself. Olmstead suffers from what one now knows is severe depression; however, at the time no one knew what was wrong with him. This causes a lot of stress on top of the stress of creating the perfect landscape of the fair. His inner turmoil begins to affect his work and judgment. As a result his stress is increased due to the fact that the landscape isn’t coming together as he originally anticipated.

    The final fight is between Holmes and his victims. Holmes begins to slip-up in his facade. The women he hunts begin to discover his true nature before they are killed. This forces Holmes to kill them sooner and sloppier. His fascination for killing also causes his slip-ups. He chooses women who have family and friends looking for them. He begins to find it more and more difficult to fend off the curious questions, especially about Emeline.

    The women too were fighting, for their life. The footprint alone proves the fight the women were forced to put up. Even Julia attempted to put up a fight. Most of them realized too late that Holmes wasn’t what he seemed. They attempted to fight of run but before they could he got to them. This fight was a lesser part of the section but still prominent.

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  5. Burnham’s plot in the novel is accurately described as “An Awful Fight.” During this section, Burnham fights time as well as potential humiliation and challenges to the fair. Time is running out and lots of work must be done before the fair is complete. There is skepticism as to whether the fair will go on. Furthermore, Olmsted is sick, the weather is not cooperating, the economy is slipping, and the pressure to outdo the Paris exposition is building. There are also problems such as finding a way to battle the potential of crime and disease at the fair and having to cut and fire workers.
    Burnham continually speaks of trying to “out-Eiffel Eiffel.” During this time Chicago is struggling to gain significance in the world, thus an “Awful Fight.” To out-do Paris and the Eiffel tower is vital in their attempt to establish themselves as prominent in the world. To not match them would be detrimental to that goal as well as an embarrassment to Chicago. But when Mr. Eiffel himself is considered to build a building for the fair, the thought of potentially being out Eiffeled by Eiffel himself is simply humiliating as well.
    H.H. Holmes faces an “Awful Fight” in his attempts to get away with fraud and murder. It is getting harder to get away from constant creditors searching for their money. Also he is beginning to receive accusations pertaining to missing people. His character is becoming rather suspicious to those involved, and struggling to defend himself and create lies is an “Awful Fight.” For those involved, it is an "Awful Fight" to try to escape Holmes's devious ways. When Holmes breaks up the Conners family, they at first do not realize it is not eachother they are fighting, but Holmes.

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  6. All of the architects and people in charge are facing a sort of "awful fight" in regard to the construction of the White City. They face countless obstacles. Workers become increasingly unmotivated, progress is blocked by weather and related disasters, and they have enormous expectations to live up to. The outcome of the Fair is expected to surpass even Paris and the Eiffel Tower. This is even more of a fight due to the fact that Burnham had to take even more responsibilities after the passing of his architectural partner, John Root.

    The bigger, and in my opinion more awful, fight revolves around Holmes. His fight revolves around falling in "love", and then proceeding to kill, dispose of, and create stories for numerous young women. Whatever it is that goes on in the head of serial has to be referred to as a fight. The planning, executing, and covering up is one big, constant, awful struggle. People who know him are drawn into the fight as the disappearances become harder and harder to overlook. For now, Holmes seems to be winning, but it seems to be only a matter of time before someone catches on. If not, this fight will get a lot more awful with the arrival of thousands of people, particularly young women, when it comes time for the Fair.

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    1. Holmes does seem to be winning... almost untouchable. I like that you address the fights of both of our main characters.

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  7. The second part of the novel is appropriately titled "An Awful Fight" because of the many battles almost all the characters faced. First of all, every girl that h.h.Holmes became involved with was fighting for their life, even if they didn't know is this. This rings true for everyone involved with Holmes, not just the girls. You can also see many examples of "awful fights" in the process of constructing the fair. With terrible weather and limited time, everyone working on the fair felt the pressure and constantly had to be fighting against the clock. This was especially noticeable when parts of buildings collapsed. The last battle that is prominent in the second half of the book is Olmsted's battle with his health. It seems that no matter what he does nothing is helping and that his health continues to deteriorate.
    Overall every character seems to have a battle that they are in, whether it be with other people or time limitations.

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  8. Part 2 indeed brings "An Awful Fight" against time, against evil, and suspicion. The architects face an incredible challenge- to build a fair that lives up to their visions and public expectations in the time that is alotted. They suffer numerous setbacks, Burnham especially. Meanwhile, Holmes struggles against other's suspicions. It is clear that Holmes is not the average man, and many people fear him. He must constantly cover his tracks to protect his brilliant operation. Other characters struggle as well. Olmstead, for instance, struggles for equal time for his part of the project. Overall, each character fights with one another to accomplish their own goals, and the picture picture persay is sometimes lost along the way, which is something that burnham constantly fought to overcome.

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    1. I agree with Hannah. We see the true buildup of the fair and all of it expectations in the section of reading. In both parts of the story we see the characters get striving to achieve their goals only to be doubted, or in Holmes case, questioned of his habits. Part 2 could be called "An Awful Fight" due to the obsticals the characters incounter. It truly is a fight where some of the characters, like Olmsted, are on the verge of giving up. However in the end of the section, the long wait for the fair is over, and all of the preparations done by Holmes and Burha - in their own ways- have finally paid off.

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  9. Part two seems to be nothing except endless struggles and fights. Burnham and his partners hurry to get everything finished in time for the Opening Day of the fair. They have a million things to take into account and worry about and not much time at all. First off, their workers are causing difficulty. Some are protesting the wages and hours that they are being given, and as a result the work is not getting done that needs to be. Burnham also stresses out about finding a building to exceed the Eiffel Tower. He tries to get the ideas flowing out of the architects, but none of them put forth any worthy building plans. This building is a very important one because it has to beat the Eiffel Tower in order for the Chicago fair to even be in competition with the Paris Exposition. In all, everything is just moving slow in Part two and things aren't getting done as quickly as Burnham and the others would like. It seems that everything goes wrong for them. Weather complicates things as well. Violent storms knock down parts of buildings that were almost completed, halting construction even further. Never-ending rain makes painting and working condition difficult. Multiple injuries and deaths during the construction of the World Fair occur, and threaten to hurt the reputation of not only Burnham but the World Fair in general. This section is a constant struggle for everyone involved in the building of the world fair. When one obstacle is resolved, it seems that another one arises. They have to try and get all of these problems solved before their deadline. It was a fight to the finish, but in the end all of their hard work and stress proved rewarding.

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