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A Dream In John Larson's The White City

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Utopia- an imagined place or state in which everything is perfect. This is can also be referred to “The White City” in which Chicago was named for its enchanting and beautiful World’s Fair hosted in 1893. The city ultimately changed in just sixteen-months from ugly and crime-filled streets to what many claimed to be a dream. This dream like concept, for many, was easy to be hold, but for numerous women who came to Chicago it was a living, breathing nightmare. Granted that many people came for the fair, many women came before the fair looking for jobs. “...single young women who had never seen a city but now hoped to make one of the biggest and toughest their home” (Larson 11). These young women came in search of jobs such as typewriters, …show more content…

“An inexhaustible dream of beauty” Edgar Lee Masters wrote, quoted by Larson, about the Court, meaning it was an endless supply of beauty, not only to the Court but everywhere. Doro Root, John’s Root’s widow wrote, “I think I should never willingly cease drifting in that dreamland” (Larson 253). Which she meaning by this quote is she would not want to leave the city, let alone burn it down like Burnham does. The city did not only feel like a dream, it had qualities people only dreamt about. For example, on page 247, Larson explains the difference between the ‘Black City’ and ‘White City’, “The Black City to the north lay stepped in smoke and garbage, but here in the White City of the fair visitors found clean public bathrooms, pure water, an ambulance service, electric streetlights, and a sewage-processing system that yielded acres of manure for farmers.” These things may seem like nothing to us now, but in 1893, having clean water in a huge city like Chicago was a …show more content…

Burnham’s job was not only to establish the most beautiful fair in world history, but he needed to establish a good name for America and its architects, which had been crushed by Champ de Mars, hosted in Paris, France in 1889. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “We shall be ranked among those nations who have shown themselves careless of appearances,” (Larson 15). This quote from the newspaper explains that America doesn’t care how we make ourself look or how we look to outsiders. Not only did the mean face global humiliation, but they faced horrible landscape problems, unpredictable weather, bank crashes and labor union strikes. Building this dreamland did not come easy, but it did turn out beautiful. In the end, the White City come to be the dream that many people came to know and love. It also came to be the thing that many people came to be the end of many women's lives at the hands of a psychopath, who used the dream to his fulfill his wicked nightmares. Yet, the legacy of Burnham and his White City still live on, “On a crystalline fall day you can almost hear the twinkle of fine crystal, the rustle of silk and wool, almost smell the expensive cigars” (Larson

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Their city was growing and was awarded the chance to host the World’s Columbian Exchange. Chicago was becoming a prideful place. Officials and citizens were not concerned when people went missing because their city was thriving. Because Chicago was a selfish city, people dying in Chicago was not a concern. “Chicago was nothing more than a greedy, hog-slaughtering backwater.”

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The Chicago World Fair stirred many emotions in this great time of industrialization, but not only was Chicago shining in the spotlight from the fair, it was also promoting something much more sinister, this dark enclosing spotlight shined directly on H.H Holmes. Burnham the leader of the World Fair and H. H Holmes the notorious serial killer, are the two main characters in this novel that Erik Larson uses the balance between light and dark between these two’s personalities. In the novel The Devil in the White City Erik Larson uses Imagery, paradox, and alliteration to show the balance between the light and dark in the ever growing city of Chicago. Imagery paints an ever expanding picture for the audience, the detailed descriptions such as “but his eyes are as blue as ever, bluer at this instant by proximity to the sea" (Larson 3).

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The Devil in the White City Rhetorical Analysis Essay The Chicago World’s Fair, one of America’s most compelling historical events, spurred an era of innovative discoveries and life-changing inventions. The fair brought forward a bright and hopeful future for America; however, there is just as much darkness as there is light and wonder. In the non-fiction novel, The Devil in the White City, architect Daniel Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes are the perfect representation of the light and dark displayed in Chicago. Erik Larson uses positive and negative tone, juxtaposition, and imagery to express that despite the brightness and newfound wonder brought on by the fair, darkness lurks around the city in the form of murder, which at first, went unnoticed.

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The non fiction novel, “The Devil in the White City”, is filled with twists and turns as author Eric Larson compares the lives of two men thought to be living two entirely different lives. Chicago’s World Fair, in remembrance of the landing of Columbus in America, is a major aspect in the lives of both men, named H.H Holmes and Daniel Burnham. In this specific passage, however, the literary element of symbolism is applied and very well so. The illuminations lighting up the city symbolizes positivity. With European rivals always “one step ahead”, the lights covering Chicago specifically give a sense of hope and America’s potential to be improved.

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Erik Larson writes “Beneath the gore and smoke and loom, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging in the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow”(Larson xi). In the book The Devil and the White City, Erik Larson tells a story of 2 very determined men, Daniel Burnham and H. Holmes, using their talents and determination to create good results, but also bad results; one being a very successful and good spirited architect, the other being a witty evil serial killer. It reveals how in every good act or intention, there is some kind of evil, and also the other way around. Erik Larson explores the underlying difference between good and evil, while telling 2 tales of Daniel Burnham, and Henry H. Holmes Daniel Burnham and Henry H. Holmes are alike in many ways, as explored throughout the novel. Both of these men used their determination and skills to accomplish many things, good or bad.

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