Structure

A Paradise Built in Hell is divided into five distinct sections, each focusing on a different disaster and the communities that help sustain survivors. The five major sections are then further subdivided into shorter chapters that focus on key figures in disaster recovery. For example, Section I: A Millennial Good Fellowship is subdivided into short chapters about Anna Amelia Holshauser, Pauline Jacobson, and others who were eyewitnesses to the 1906 earthquake and managed to thrive in the service of others. A Paradise in Hell also contains a poetic Prelude in which Solnit introduces broad themes that resonate through all sections of the book such as the "sharp joy" (7) many disaster survivors experience. The Epilogue entitled "The Doorway in the Ruins" also echoes the joy that survivors find in serving each other. Solnit observes that "Disaster reveals what else the world could be like--reveals the strength of that hope...