Analysis Of The Devil In The White City By Erik Larson

I picked The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson as my one book to read this summer because the serial killer aspect of the novel really appealed to me as compelling and interesting. Larson tells two different stories in the novel that are tied together by happening in the same city of Chicago in the 1890s. It tells of Daniel Burnham and his determination to create something good and H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who practices great evil. This book has a meaningful impact on how I view life as it divulges the difference between good and evil. I have always thought I was a good person or at least I try to be. However, I am probably more of a neutral, not good, but not evil person. Daniel Burnham is the example of a good man in the novel. He used his skills to create the Chicago World’s Fair. He built something positive for the city of Chicago and the rest of the nation. Burnham did not act because of his personal interests. He did it for the city, the people, and the greater good. Larson writes,“One portion of the lakefront, named Burnham Park in his honor, contains Soldier Field and the Field Museum, which he designed.” (374). Larson is showing one way Burnham was rewarded for his goodness. I need to be more like Burnham and focus a little more on the people around me than on my personal interests.

If Burnham is an angel, Holmes is a demon. William Stead stated that “Beside his own person and his own interests, nothing is sacred to the psychopath.” (Larson 87-88). The psychopath he is directly referring to is Holmes. Holmes acts solely on personal interest. He does not sympathize for other humans. He treats them as if they were toys to play with and does not care what happens to them. Holmes is amiable and charming and use this to manipulate and deceive others instead of to accomplish something good. Holmes commits the worst evil of all, murder, and for that, he ended up rotting in a jail cell until his