Themes in The Great Fire

Question 9 • 2025/26 IGC-English II - Prescriptive

Which excerpt from The Great Fire best supports the theme that there was a sense of hope that the city would rebuild after the fire?

Answer

“But as she passed through the blackened landscape and came closer and closer to them, she must have felt much the way another fire victim, Mrs. Charles Forsberg, did: ‘When we lay down, away from the crowd, and I knew I had my [family] safe, I felt so rich — I have never in my life felt so rich!’”

“Alfred Sewell ended his discussion of Chicago with a stirring prediction: ‘The city will nevertheless rise again, nay, is already rising, like the Phoenix, from her ashes. And she will, we believe, be a better city as well as a greater one, than she was before her disaster.’”

“The demand for carpenters and bricklayers soared, and farmers from as far away as 150 miles came to get jobs. Salaries also rose, with unskilled laborers commanding two dollars a day.”

“It continued driving the fire through the heart of Chicago, devouring churches, banks, publishing houses and printers, breweries, grain elevators, lumberyards, and department stores as if they were constructed of brittle hay. Buildings that citizens viewed with great pride, such as the Courthouse, were gobbled up.”

Explanation

Choice B directly expresses confidence that Chicago would recover, predicting that the city would “rise again” and become better and greater after the disaster. The other excerpts describe family relief, increased demand for workers, or the destruction caused by the fire, but do not state the hope of rebuilding as clearly.

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