Burnham Alone-Olmsted Analysis

“If everything went perfectly - if his health did not degrade any further, if the weather held, if Burnham completed the other buildings on time, if strikes did not destroy the fair, if the many committees and directors, which Olmsted called “that army our hundreds of masters,” learned to leave Burnham alone - Olmsted might be able to complete his task on time” (Larson 118). Erik Larson uses repetition of the word “if” to emphasize to his readers how difficult it was for Olmsted to complete his task on time with bountiful different factors to keep in mind; Larson wanted to convey to his readers how stressful it was for Olmsted. He uses the repetition “if” to communicate to his readers that there is a chance that everything could work out;
He knew that there is only so much time to build the fair and seeing this land so bare, makes him feel frustrated. However, Burnham had found some “beauty in the rawness.” He found that with “the pure blue line of the lake horizon” made the empty, barren land more cheerful; knowing this, the readers have a vivid image of how the fair looked in the very beginning. Therefore, by using this imagery, Larson is able to paint a vivid image into his reader’s minds of the beginning of the fairs
Every other building of substance in Englewood seemed to be charged with the energy of anticipation, not just of the world’s fair but of a grand future expanding far beyond the fair’s end. Within just a couple of blocks of sixty-third rose huge, elaborate houses of many colors and textures, and down the street stood the Timmerman Opera House and the adjacent New Julian Hotel, whose owners had spent heavily on fine materials and expert craftsman. In contrast, Holmes’s building was dead space, like the corner of a room where the gaslight could not reach” (Larson