Great Chicago Fire Essay -- American History

Great Chicago Fire I have no passion or desire to write about a thunderous destruction of a city or the death of hundreds of people. Yes, I have no connection to this topic, besides my home being 30 minutes from downtown Chicago, but that does not mean that this fire does not pertain to me or anyone who lives in a completely different state for that matter. So, just because I have never experienced a disaster of this magnitude does not mean that my lips should stay shut regarding the topic of the Great Chicago Fire. What must be done is to look at events and, for that matter, life in a certain perspective that is not always one-sided. This one-sidedness can come from focusing on a particular outcome without realizing what else can come from that desired outcome. The Great Chicago Fire occurred during October 8th and 9th of 1871. The weeks leading up to this disaster were spent with an extremely watchful eye on the city due to the lack of rain. So, one spark or one small fire could start an extremely large fire because of how much wood had been used to build the city. There were even warnings given in form of a building inspection department idea that would inform the city that the buildings were â€Å"shoddily constructed firetraps†, according to the Tribune at the time. However, the city did nothing about the proposed problem of a dangerous fire breakout and paid the price. It came to the evening of October 8th, 1871 and the table had been set. It is still unclear how the fire had started because one newspaper claimed that a cow kicked over a lantern to start a barn on fire. However, that newspaper retracted their claims when charges of slander surfaced. The fact of the matter is, it started on t... ...ou are not heading down the life path that you had wanted since you were young. You would have a chance to go ahead and change your life and your happiness simply because you got canned. Obviously, if you did not get fired you would not have had that chance to sit back and realize your life is sliding away in the wrong direction. Indeed, that is a very extreme example of how this question would apply to everyday life, but it works with those events of the simplest nature too. If one looks at disasters in this way, it is much easy for it to be rationalized. How do people who do not believe in a God and its plan for everyone deal with the fact that so many people perished from one act. There is no good reason for mass amounts of people to die, but if something greater comes from it regarding the well-being of many more people it makes it more bearable.