Lost In the Mall Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lost In the Mall - Essay Example This paper stresses that the old Chicago post office was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in 1921. The nine story tall building was always bustling with activity but there were many problems that surrounded it. As the study outlines Franzen begins the story of â€Å"Lost in the Mall† with a hypothesis which is a good direction for any novelist to conduct his inquiry. The main goal he had in mind was to crack open the scandal of the Chicago Post Office. The hypothesis, on which Franzen bases his story, is the notoriety of the goings on in the post office. He decries the way it worked because it had earned the name of being the largest postal system in the world, but yet the post office was considered the worst in postal deliveries and services and at one time, it almost came to a virtual halt, as the system got clogged with about 10 million mails when they experienced a logjam. The sorting method had failed miserably and was not capable of keeping up with the demand. It was this notorious incident that triggered a full scale investigation which in turn called for a total reorganization of the Postal system in Chicago. The old building had to be vacated when a new and modern building t ook its place and culminated into what is called the U.S Postal service in the year 1971.