The Square

The Square is V.M. Straka’s third book and its year of publication is unknown. According to F.X. Caldeira’s first footnote in chapter 3­­­­, it tells the story of a “solitary man with no possessions, spotted for the first time in Chicago as he emerges from the waters of Lake Michigan just five days before the infamous massacre at Haymarket Square.” However, Eric notes on page 70 that Franzl actually

emerges 10 days before, not 5. (…) Also, F. isn’t spotted – he sneaks in. That’s the whole point.

The Haymarket Affair happened on May 4th, 1886. According to the Illinois Labor History Society (ILHS), just three days before, on May 1st, a group of around “80,000 workers marched up Michigan Avenue demanding that the eight-hour day law be enforced.” Many of the employers at the time “would make workers sign a waiver of the law before giving them jobs.” On May 2nd, “35,000 workers gathered to protest, again, peacefully.” However, on May 3rd, Chicago police “attacked and killed protestors at the McCormick Reaper Plant. Yes, very much like the detectives at Vévoda’s factory in Ship of Theseus. However, that’s not all, the laborers’ protests were led by Lucy and Albert Parsons, which are pretty probably the inspirations for Corbeau and Stenfalk. Then, on May 4th, the protestors gathered in Haymarket Square for a meeting “when 176 policemen appeared with rifles. Then someone, still unknown, threw a dynamite bomb. Policemen killed some of their own in the confusion and also some workers were killed.” According to the ILHS, very few textbooks present the actual events of the Haymarket Affair.

As Eric notes on page 75, the line “They radiate an unmistakable potential – and perhaps even a taste – for violence”

comes verbatim from The Square.

In SOT, this line refers to the detectives in front of Vévoda’s factory, which most likely is a reference to the policemen that attacked the protestors at the McCormick Reaper Plant.

On page 88 Eric notices a similarity between the events of the first full paragraph and The Square. In this part S., Ostrero, and Pfeifer are protesting in front of Vévoda’s factory.

According to the ILHS, martial law was declared nation-wide after the incident and anti-labor governments used the Chicago incident to crush labor unions.

 

Haymarketnewspaper

The Story of the Haymarket Affair according to the ILHS:

http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/haymarket/the-story-of-the-haymarket-affair.html

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