ipl-logo

Devil In The White City Analysis

1499 Words6 Pages

Reagan Carter Period 4 Devil in the White City Reading Log The "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson is a nonfiction novel that reveals the chaos of Chicago. The novel mostly takes place in Chicago around 1890-1893 while towards the end of the novel it takes place in 1895 Philadelphia. Larson recreated two men that would live in Chicago. The two men will have different plots and will each provide a meaning in one another. One plot is by the architect that will build the Chicago World's Fair his name is Daniel Burnham. The other man's name is H.H Holmes and he is trying to acquire work as a pharmacist or a doctor around the same time period, but he isn't a regular man. Daniel Burnham's …show more content…

No one knows who coined the term, but it fit, and the Montauk became the first building to be called a skyscraper.” page 25 The author uses a polysyndeton structure sentence to help emphasize how marvelous the building was. The author’s use of diction also helps portray how grand the building was. "Great murderers, like great men in other walks of activity, have blue eyes.”page 35 This simile compares great men and how Burnham and Holmes are equal at what they do. Both men take very cautious and highly detailed when it comes to their work. The “blue eyes” reference helped compare the men with one another since both are just men. “ “I was born with the devil in me,” he wrote. “I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.” “ page 108 The comparison to murder with a song writer and his songs help create a deeper metaphor. The act of murder was so thrilling to him that he couldn’t just do it once but it had to be annual thing. Just like how songwriters write their lyrics. “The fair was so perfect, its grace and beauty like an assurance that for as long as it lasted nothing truly bad could happen to anyone, anywhere.” page

Show More
Related

The Devil In The White City Book Report

1904 Words | 8 Pages

The Devil in the White City gives a unique glimpse into how there is both bad and good existing in the city. In my opinion the point of the book was to show how both good and bad coexist in one place. Sometimes with the knowledge of the other existing. The book was written by Erik Larson and published by first vintage books. Published almost 14 years ago the book is still relevant today and still has much to teach us.

Read More

Analysis Of The Devil In The White City By Erik Larson

1246 Words | 5 Pages

The Devil in The White City, by Erik Larson is a curious piece of history work, the book is not historical fiction nor is it a basic book of history. Mister Larson has created a book that is an essential work in understanding America and her people in the early 1890’s and the rise of Chicago as being one of the most important cities in the United States. Before the magic that transformed Chicago into the famous White City, Chicago was known by a different title: The Black City. Chicago in the late 1800’s was not an easy or clean place to live in, as one Chicagoan, Ben Hecht, states “It was pleasant, in a way, to know that outside their windows the devil was still capering in a flare of brimstone.” What change Chicago from staying as the dangerous

Read More

Analysis Of Devil In The White City By Erik Larson

431 Words | 2 Pages

"Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson is a brilliant work of non-fiction that chronicles the story of two men, one an architect and the other a serial killer, who were operating in the city of Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair. The book weaves together the stories of these two men, and in doing so, brings to life the grandeur and excitement of the fair, as well as the darkness and horror of the murders. The main character of the book is Daniel Burnham, who was the architect in charge of organizing the construction of the World's Fair. Burnham was an architect of great vision, who had been responsible for numerous projects throughout the country before being given the monumental task of organizing the fair. Larson's book follows Burnham's journey as he worked tirelessly to ensure that the fair would be a success.

Read More

Heart Of Darkness Dialectical Journal

426 Words | 2 Pages

This quote was referring to H.H. Holmes. Although Harrison and Burnham were also described as having blue eyes as well, this included all these men under the “greatness” umbrella. – Page 82 - “No one could bear the idea of the White City lying empty and desolate. A Cosmopolitan writer said, “Better to have it vanish suddenly, in a blaze of glory, than fall into gradual disrepair and dilapidation.”

Read More

Compare And Contrast Burnham And The Devil In The White City

970 Words | 4 Pages

Isaac Shaw October 9, 2014 Hist 2020 Dr. Paulauskas Paper #1 In the 1890’s, America was starting to experience changes leading to new revelations in the way it functioned in mass communication, mass transportation, and urbanization. In Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, he brings the seemingly different stories of two men in this time period, one a mass murder, H.H. Holmes and, the other a grand architect, Daniel Burnham to explain how America was changing into a more modern era. First, both Burnham and Holmes used the popularity of urbanization to achieve their individual goals.

Read More

The Devil In The White City Analysis

1584 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More

The Devil In The White City Research Paper

510 Words | 3 Pages

If you had to drop everything you had leave your life right now and go to pursue a better life, would you be able to do it? You would have to leave everything you have like your family, friends, and your job, to step out into an into an unknown world and start a new life. In the Devil in the White City, this was a thought that was running through many of the lower class and some middle class's mind looking for a new life or to trying to get money. There are many jobs that were available during the construction and during the fair like construction and cashiers or other positions for the stores in Chicago. Construction was one of the most important jobs/parts in the building of the fair so it was going to take a vast number of workers to be able

Read More

Compare And Contrast The Devil And The White City

870 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

The Devil In The White City Essay

1116 Words | 5 Pages

In Erik Larson’s novel The Devil in the White City takes place during the Gilded Age. During this period of time everything appears good and golden on the outside when in reality everything was full of corruption. In the novel, the author takes the reader to the city of Chicago, where the city is “swelled “in population causing the city to expand in all “available directions” (Larson 44). As Chicago became the “second most populous [city] in the nation after New York” there was an urge that city show off to the world and the nation of how great it was through the Chicago World’s Fair (Larson 44).

Read More

The Devil In The White City

670 Words | 3 Pages

Erik Larson's iconic book The Devil in the White City relives the events leading up to the World's Fair of Chicago that occurred in the late 1800s. It is a novel of contrasts, as the title first evidenced. The Fair was known as the “White City”, as it was both literally white and a bright example of the magic America and the world could offer. In contrast with this image is the devil in the personality and nature of Holmes, committing horrible acts only a few blocks from the Fair. The question points out more contrasts.

Read More

Gangs Of New York City Analysis

496 Words | 2 Pages

The 1800s was a century of immigration of Europeans to the United States. Many of Europeans came from southern and eastern Europe. Some Europeans came for religious freedom. Moreover, many others were just looking to improve their economic resources. Most European immigrants traveled to New York by ship.

Read More

Theme Of The Devil In The White City

757 Words | 4 Pages

The World Exhibition which was meant to be a shining beacon of the modern world to show the advancements of humankind would be tainted by the horrors brought by a depraved man considered to be America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes. In Erik Larson’s novel “The Devil in the White City’ Larson details the ingenious architecture, science, politics, and gruesome murders of Chicago during the Gilded Age of The United States. Larson paints his picture with vivid and engaging language with incredible use of colors depicting the psychotic blue shown across Holmes's facade and the burning flame in Roots' persistence to plan the World Fair. Larson uses these themes to help the reader understand the changes the world will face as technology advances

Read More

Is America Falling Apart

1105 Words | 5 Pages

Goodheart goes in to depth about how the word skyscraper came about, saying it started when The Duke of Bedford had a grooms that named his race horse skyscraper. Then word then went on to be used as a ships rigging (1794), A high hat or bonnet (1800), a tall person (1857), and then in 1860 to describe a towering fly ball and was soon integrated into describing something reaching the sky. In order to have built these buildings they had to have the right resources, such as cheap, high quality structural steel. Goodheart describes all the different inventions that had to come before the skyscraper, such as the elevator. When the elevator was first invented by Elisha Graves Otis in 1854, he would rise above crowds on an open platform of wrought iron.

Read More

Analysis Of City Of Thieves By David Benioff

888 Words | 4 Pages

City of Thieves – David Benioff How has David Benioff explored the dehumanising aspects of war in his novel? City of Thieves is historical fiction set in the besieged Russian city of Leningrad during World War Two. Lev Beniov, a Jewish seventeen year old, details his story as the protagonist through his first person narrative perspective of the siege. Benioff’s focus is the desensitized attitudes and behaviour shared by characters throughout the novel as they contend with dehumanising situations which would appear horrifying under circumstances that have been unaffected by war. Through the utilisation of techniques such as characterisation, plot and first person narrative, Benioff explores the dehumanising aspects of war in his novel.

Read More

Devils On The Doorstep Analysis

1003 Words | 5 Pages

During the first half of the 20th century, the Japanese empire was at the peak of its power. Starting form 1910 up until 1945, the end WWII, Korea was being held by Japan as a colony. During this time, Japan and China entered The Second Sino-Japanese War that stared in 1937 and ended with Japanese surrender in 1945. These Japanese actions have had such an impactful effect on the people that it hurt, that films, such as Devils on the Door step and The Handmaiden, have even contemporary films express negative emotions to the long-lasting effects of the Japanese empire.

Read More

More about Devil In The White City Analysis

Open Document