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Juxtaposition Between The White City And The Black City

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The Chicago World Fair is an extraordinary attraction during the contrasting Gilded Age as innovations were constantly forming and shifting the world into a new age of technology. Celebrating Columbus's discovery of America, millions of people and many familiar faces such as Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Thomas Edison and etc., came together in the “White City” of Chicago to witness a dreamlike fantasy. Furthermore, the fair is an impactful influence formed by the architect, Daniel Burnham, and created a proud unification within the country. However, the fair is also the making of one of the first serial killers in American history, H.H Holmes. Holmes trapped people inside his “hotel” and committed murder to an estimated count of 200 people. The …show more content…

Larson uses this to display the different effects the fair has in the city. Contrasting “garbage” and “clean,” he displays a new and improved Chicago after the fair commences. Furthermore, the new “White City” introduces many benefits from the fair such as ambulance services and electric streetlights; this serves as a positive and innovative effect for the readers. Moreover, Chicago’s major transformation from the “smoke and garbage” of the “Black City” shows how much of an impact the surreal innovations of the Fair exhibits on the harsh reality outside of the dreaming city. The “Black City’s” expansion also kept growing as it got “bigger, taller, and richer” but also “dirtier, darker, and more dangerous” to convey the actuality of Chicago (27-28). Larson contrasts “bigger” and “dirtier” to show the readers that the more expansion of buildings, the more trash will get thrown around. He uses this to convey the reality of what’s going to happen when the fair is built. Throughout the novel, he shows the readers how the effect of the dreamlike fair actually causes a harmful impact in the city after being torn down. Furthermore, Larson continues to contrast “taller and richer” and “darker and more dangerous” to illustrate how the high class is going to cause more corruption onto the city itself. This conveys to the readers as a depraved society brainwashing the citizens to do unlawful acts and proves that the reality of the city is horrifying. Overall, Larson displays the difference between the “Black City” and the “White City” in order to contrast the harsh and frightening state of Chicago to the whimsical and wistful imagination of the

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In the late 1800s the Chicago World’s Fair was well on its way to becoming a modern marvel of the time, little did the fairgoers know that both good and a great evil lurked among them. The Devil in the White City is a historical nonfiction book written by Erik Larson, within it there lies two stories of two very different men. The tale of good follows the life of a young architect whose goal is to make an impact on the world. How will he accomplish this? By making the, “legendary 1893 World’s Fair”.

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The author sets the tone as she begins her narrative in a quest to Chicago’s World Fair. She describes the inception of the fair, the exhibits of the fair, and the significance of the expo on social and cultural America. Readers are introduced to the first minstrel performances. Throughout this narrative, the author employs illustrations to further allow readers into this view. Moving through chapters two and three, Sotiropoulos unravels the vaudeville stages and the perception of the “coon” imagery.

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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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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

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Book Analysis- The Devil in the White City The Chicago World’s Fair continues to be one of America’s defining moments. This is where America proved to the world they had grown up and were able to hold their own. Erik Larson eloquently illustrates the entire fair in little black words on paper. Although he was not alive during this event, Larson is able to reconstruct the story with factual events; he created twists to keep you ensnared into the story.

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The “gleam in the sun, a soft, white note in the dun-colored landscape, and the pure blue line of the lake horizon” paints a vivid image of the calm and tranquil scene Larson has created (129). Attention to color is mentioned throughout the novel to reiterate the liveliness of the city. The “soft yellows, pinks, and purples” and “brilliant blues” all span throughout the fair, adding to the beauty and lightness of the event (267). Conversely, previously the scene was pictured as peaceful and calm, but is later in the same sentence described as having a “rugged and barren foreground” (129). The contrast seen by the audience serves as a reminder that even though things may seem tranquil and at ease, there is still an undiscovered crime taking place at the same times.

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The Devil in the White City is a nonfiction novel, written by Erik Larson, which focuses on the time spent during the building of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The Fair was designed to commemorate the landing of Christopher Columbus in America. The novel, instead of focusing on just one story, splits into two distinct plot lines of two real men, whose lives were destined to become intertwined. They, however, could not be more different in character. The first man, named Daniel Burnham, is the architect who is put in charge of building the Fair.

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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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Not only does the “terrible burden of destiny” (32) present as a standalone phrase with linguistic manipulation, but the phrase also contributes to Sandburg’s theme in which the worst and best of situations peacefully coexist. Surrounding the “terrible burden of destiny” is a “young man… Bragging and laughing” (32-36), a city with a “pulse” (36), and “the heart of the people” (37). Intertwining the vivid language of life with a dark “burden” exemplifies that the darkness of the city exists within the lightness of the city. Illustrating an animated city despite the “painted women” (7) and “gunm[e]n” (10) Sandburg shows the city “building, breaking, [and] rebuilding” (29) displaying action coinciding with destruction by necessity. Sandburg shows that growth comes as a result of death through the “rebuilding” of Chicago shortly after “breaking.”

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Being a black woman raised in a white world, Ann Petry was familiar with the contrast in lives of African Americans and whites (McKenzie 615). The Street, centered in 1940’s Harlem, details these differences. While Petry consistently portrays Harlem as dark and dirty, she portrays the all-white neighborhoods of Connecticut as light and clean. This contrast of dark vs light is used in the expected way to symbolize despair vs success.

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The first black person seen in Chicago is mopping the floor. He has a speaking part, but he is shown to have no life other than serving white people who do not treat him kindly. His boss talks to him with disdain and pushes him out of the frame. The depiction of black people in Chicago, or lack thereof, reinforces the idea that black people are not universally present, are not needed, and can be treated

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Nevertheless, the resolution surrounding the exposition was a dismal, if not captivating, affair, affecting thousands. But in the midst of this gloom was another reason for mourning, a reason that pushed the entire countryside on the edges of their seats, the death of one, Benjamin Pitezel and the disappearance of his three children. At the center of this shocking story was a figure whose presence could be described as the embodiment of the black city, Doctor H.H. Holmes, and the man-made in charge of solving this conundrum, Detective Geyer. To showcase this battle of good attempting to overthrow evil and its effect on the people, Larson uses personification, personifying the humidity during that time as “A humid stillness [that] held the countryside”

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Jack the City History is fraught with serial killers that committed unbelievable crimes. One of the most celebrated and commercialized is called Jack The Riper. Jack the Ripper is not the most notorious, successful or the first serial killer the world saw. Yet a lot of people consider him to be the godfather of the whole concept of serial killers. One of those killers, who easily outran Jack the Ripper is Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H. H. Holmes, who bought and renovated a building in Chicago thus transforming it into a hotel where he killed foreigners, mainly women but also men and children during the World 's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

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Each one’s eyes asked with disappointment: IS THIS AMERICA?”The author himself is cognizant of all the turmoil and pseudo – values that sway the New York metropolis life; and yet, he fervently wishes that his son be impressed with New York’s skyscrapers, its bustle, its modernity, its intimidating atmosphere. Since the foul weather that day hampers the materialization of that wish, he grows despondent: “It hurt my dignity that New York should show itself to my son so gloomy and dingy. I had a vain ambition to have him see immediately the nicer quarters of the city. " But for the son just now back from the war with the Arabs, after his close encounter with the lurking dangers in the battlefield, New York's pomp and glitter, its dazzling lights on the Broadway hold little value : "He looked and was silent.

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