In the book the “Devil in the White City,” the fair has created a dream like city known as the “White City.” Through the book the reader learns that opulence and grandeur of the Fair and the poverty and degradation that surrounded it are directly related. While reading the audience learns that the people in poverty had an improved condition because of the fair, there was a push to clean up Chicago making it a cleaner, better place to live, but once the fair was gone the conditions would go back to how they were before. When the decision was made that the world fair would be held in Chicago Burhans was aware that he would need workers to build the grand fair he would plan. Without the citizens willing to work in Chicago there would be nobody to build the fair. This was helpful for the impoverished people who were without jobs because workers were in high…show more content… “ No one could bear the idea of the White City lying empty and desolate.(322)” The residents of Chicago had began to enjoy what great things came out of the fair. “The fair was so perfect, its grace and beauty like an assurance that for as long as it lasted nothing truly bad could happen to anyone, anywhere.(289)” The fair had created a heavenly setting for people to be. After it was gone everybody would be in shock because of the dramatic change of the White City back to the bleak, darkness of the Black City.
The Chicago World’s Fair created a temporary haven for the residents of Chicago. After the fair came to an end the wonderful things the fair brought quickly disappeared. The jobs were gone, the city’s cleanliness was no longer a priority, and people wished the atmosphere the fair created would stay forever. This proves that the relationship between the fair was a temporary fix to Chicago’s problems. If the fair had never happened though, the city might not have been able to develop into what it is
