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Nature Vs. Nurture In The Devil In The White City

1010 Words5 Pages

John Locke, English philosopher and physician, believed that all things that humans do are shaped solely from nurture. His idea was that people were born blank, like a blackboard, and who they became was a result of their collective experiences. When exploring various topics of humanity, brain activity, and the concept free will, we can observe acts of nature and of nurture. As shown in Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, Shankar Vedantam’s The Hidden Brain, and “Free Will” by Matt Ridley, people are malleable. In life, humans behave like their peers, but have a few natural genetic tendencies. When it comes to personality traits, genetics play an even smaller role as your personality is shaped by your thoughts of ideas. The controversial …show more content…

In The Devil in the White City, serial killer H.H. Holmes, also identified as Mudgett, experiences a strict childhood with many extensive repercussions: “Mudgett’s parents were devout Methodists whose response to even routine misbehavior relied heavily on the rod and prayer, followed by banishment to the attic and a day with neither speech nor food” (Larson 40). Holmes lived a troubled childhood which introduced him to the ideas of both justice and punishment. As he kills, he does so in a tortuous manner: one that makes you feel like he is punishing the victim for a wrongdoing, similar to the response of his parents. In The Hidden Brain, the author states the idea that all behaviors, especially those of human interaction, are all learned through observation: “The vast majority of rules of human interaction are not written down or even articulated. There is no rule book that tells you when it is appropriate to knock on someone’s door and suggest a drink” (Vedantam 50). These silent rules are not put in your genes, they are taught by example. In our everyday lives, your parents insist you be polite and whether or not you listen, you realize politeness is the most socially acceptable course of action; therefore, you are polite. This can also be reflected as a move toward assimilation, but simply put as peer pressure. Behavior is not the only part of our lives affected by

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Analysis Of Devil In The White City By Erik Larson

2009 Words | 9 Pages

The Artistic, Moral, and Inventive Progress of America A six month long fair with lights and technology that the world had never seen anything like, a charming, blue eyed killer, and the beautiful city of Chicago; all elements that make up the novel, Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. This book is a retelling of the events that transpired in the city of Chicago before, during, and after the building of the Chicago World’s Fair, also called the World’s Columbian Exposition. For the majority of the book, each chapter switches off between the production of the fair and the life of the killer H.H. Holmes (his real name being Herman Webster Mudgett). Holmes is considered by many to be America’s first serial killer, and his actions are covered

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The Devil In The White City Book Report

1904 Words | 8 Pages

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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Summary Of The Devil In The White City By Erik Larson

1140 Words | 5 Pages

The book, “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson, is intriguing by the title alone. I had not previously heard about the book or the major events in the book, so it was interesting being able to read without bringing presumptions to the text. The “White City” mentioned in the title is Chicago, Illinois where the meat of the story occurs. “The Devil” mentioned in the title, is referring to Herman Webster Mudgett, commonly known by alias Dr. H. H. Holmes. This novel follows the construction of the World’s Columbian Exposition Fair in Chicago by architect Daniel Burnham whom is striving to prove to the nation and world that he is capable of building never-before built concepts within unheard of time frames.

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An Analysis Of Nature Vs. Nurture In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

758 Words | 4 Pages

Nature versus nurture is one of the most controversial debates in contemporary psychology. The debate concerning whether or not humans are born with the preset characteristics that will shape lives for years to come or whether actions are a result of the events and the environment that pave the way for our behavioral characteristics. Capote’s “In Cold Blood” gives the audience a detailed look into the upbringing of the character Perry Smith, creating a sympathetic outlook towards his past and attempting to bring a sense of understanding as to how a seemingly harmless young man could brutally murder four innocent people. In the case of Perry Smith, nurture was the cause of his actions in regards to the Clutter family murders.

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Character Analysis: The Devil In The White City

1508 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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Symbolism In The Devil In The White City

118 Words | 1 Pages

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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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.

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The Devil In The White City Character Analysis

581 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the course of his The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson describes Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair through the eyes of two different main characters: Herman Webster Mudgett—a psychopathic serial killer who builds his famous “death castle” on the outskirts of the fairgrounds, and Daniel Burnham—the director of works for the World’s Columbian Exposition. Larson employs the use of many contrasting themes within his writing including success and failure, but perhaps most importantly, murder and beauty. In order to emphasize said themes, Larson juxtaposes the accounts of his two main characters: Mudgett and Burnham. There is no doubt that the manner in which Larson portrays Mudgett is sketchy at best. Rather than introducing him with a concise description, Larson familiarizes the reader with Mudgett over the course of several chapters.

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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).

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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.

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One of the most debated topics throughout the world is nature versus nurture. When psychologists debate this topic, they are studying what influences a person’s personal development. Some say that a person’s nature influences personal development while others say a person’s nurture influences personal development. A lot of people spend time contemplating which one actually does the influencing but what some do not realize is that, perhaps, both nature and nurture help shape a person’s personal development. One topic that comes up quite often is whether or not a person is born a criminal.

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167 Words | 1 Pages

Being born has diverse justifications; some individuals are born well and some are born badly. This is due to diverse factors as nature and inheritance. It is natural that individuals are born with inherited trait, but all good and bad comportments are learned from entourage interaction. John Lock as cited in Pinker (2002) asserted that individuals surge to the world without knowledge, and everything is learned throughout the course of life due to experience. Furthermore, Locke posited that individuals are born with little fundamental instincts wired in their brains and the remnant of their nature is determined by experience (Pinker, 2002).

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