Dichotomies in Chicago

One thing I noticed while reading Gilbert's Perfect Cities was his references to the dichotomies in the development of Chicago. It expanded outward into the suburbs while centralizing in the city itself; tourists witnessed the spectacle of modern society while immersed in an arabesque of ethnicities; elitism pervaded in the construction of the marketplace but chaos pervaded in spectacle and awe. Chicago was a busy city, and from the sound of it the city was quite a spectacle to behold. What I took away from these differences, though, as a more enlightened view of how our society works. In reading Gay New York, I spent a lot of time analyzing these social labels and trying to pinpoint their exact accuracies or inaccuracies. But through comments from other Amconers, and through reading this novel, I'm forcing myself to realize that there really isn't ever a black or white definition of any topic we discuss in this class. We come to class to talk about the grey area, and how it effects the black and white in these novels, or in life. By understanding this, we understand perspective.

For example, by realizing Chicago wasn't the golden metropolis it hoped to be, we may understand why large portions of the city were left out of guidebooks. We can also see how the curious interpretations of certain trends within the town are justified. If it were left as black and white, we would just remain in the dark.