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Character Analysis: The Devil In The White City

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H.H Holmes confessed, “I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing”. During this time Holmes was growing to be America’s first recorded serial killer and taking place in the tail end of the Industrial Revolution, technology and architecture improved to new levels. Much like Holmes, life in the city was chaotic. Chicago at the time was moving to a more industrialized society. Architecture was becoming a booming business. Skyscrapers were being constructed among other new buildings, and in the midst of the already progressive city, Chicago had been elected as the host for the Columbian Exposition. The fair would take up a large park in the city and bring people from around the world to experience a new social and cultural event. Beside the hectic fair was violence within the city. Death was normal in a growing place like Chicago. In Erik Larson’s novel, the World Fair uplifts …show more content…

They may argue that the World Fair created a safe and peaceful gathering during the 19th Century Chicago. The fair was a chance for Chicago to show its “spirit” and pride. The citizens committee passed a passage that read, “The men who have helped build Chicago want fair, and having just and well-sustained claim, they intend to have it” (Larson 16). Society was full of pride and were influenced to better their lives and pursue the American Dream. However, the chaos and violence that ensued in the city did not reflect the perfect American Dream. Danger, death and selfishness was still prominent in the

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The World fair was the engineering project of its time. It brought plenty of excitement and attention to itself, but it also brought crime. The problem is, even though everything seems fine with the fair, there were bad things still happening. Stealing, cheating, and in extreme cases even murder. Chicago was in charge of building the World’s fair, but ended up hosting a murderer in its walls.

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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 Devil In The White City Rhetorical Analysis

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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 Devil in the White City The Devil in the White City is a historical non-fiction book written by Erik Larson that reads like a novel. The book follows two, real main characters, during the building and existence of the Chicago World’s fair. The first is an American architect named Daniel Burnham.

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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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Chicago was seen by outsiders as a land of opportunity the same way our founding fathers saw America as the land of new beginnings. Individuals all across the nation spoke of Chicago as having a “spirit” of it own and “tangible force” that was similar to the American dream (Larson 16). As people spoke so highly of Chicago and its technology, it still did not escape the criticism from other states about how the city would not be able to handle organizing a World’s fair. When the grounds of the World’s Fair were ere being prepared in Jackson Park, Chicago, the soil was too dense to build extravagant buildings, the architects in charge of creating the buildings for the World’s Fair were surprised with all the extra work needed in order for the foundations of the buildings to be sturdy (Larson

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The White City Overview The White City article, talked about the recreational area located in Chicago that was organized to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus landfall, which had a defining moment in history due to the landscaping and architecture that were built during this creational process, which is also called “the World’s Columbian Exposition”. The World’s Columbian Exposition was an after math impact of the many political and economic leaders in America that wanted to reinvent and create the destruction of the civil war. America wanted to reinvent and reconstruct the country that was also characterized by the massive industrial growth, and the mass immigration the country had. America turned to the medium of the world fair to repair their fragmented societies.

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1051 Words | 5 Pages

The main contrast start between the fair, “the White City,” (323) and the city of Chicago, also referred to as “the Black City” (323) due to all of the dirt and disgust along the streets. As the exposition “[drew]... and protected” (323) people from all over, Chicago “welcomed them back… with filth, starvation, and violence,” (323) this contrast causes both of them to become more amplified when the reader sees these things placed next to each other. The exposition, a world of wonder for all of the attendants, was placed right in the midst of Chicago, a grimy city full of dirt and darkness. The view of the exposition becomes more glorified when it is placed next to the “violence” (323) of it’s location, a safe haven in a foul city. Chicago sounds more dangerous when compared to the “protection” (323) of the Columbian World Exposition because it was so highly praised at the time.

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