American journalist and author Erik Larson’s nonfiction novel The Devil In the White City establishes a theme of perception that is prevalent throughout the text. Larson’s use of this theme is intended for the reader to see that the way things are perceived by an audience is not necessarily the way they truly are; many times the characters in this novel will see something that the narrator will later prove inaccurate. He imposes a strong contrast between what is seen and what is there to convey the concept that things within this novel can have a completely different meaning than what they appear to, paralleling the theme of good vs. bad. The similar motifs that are portrayed within the text bring together one idea that the character’s perception of danger is skewed within the setting and timeframe of this novel. In the beginning of the The Devil In the White City, the description of the setting is introduced from the first page. The city of Chicago is known to be full of opportunity and success, especially in the time period that the novel is set in. Chicago, especially in this changing time, was not as safe …show more content…
This sharp contrast of the fair can be seen with the ferris wheel. “The wheel may not have been unsafe, but it looked unsafe” (pg. 280). They did not realize what the real dangers were, they merely saw the small pleasures of life as a threat. This author uses this method of juxtaposition in order to bring more proof that the reality of many situations in the novel are not always what is perceived. This quote establishes how the fair was well-known in a completely different notion than it should have been. The fair caused the attendee’s to become naive to the actions going on around them; the real danger was ignored, and the small things that made no negative impacts were the ones that had been focused
so I found it even more intriguing to think that this had actually happened. Even with the success of the Fair, we still see the many hardships that in the modern world we would never think could happen, such as the amount of deaths, the tension, and how people reacted to this events. It seems so fictional, but is all historically accurate. I also saw that Larson’s storyline went to even more depth than I would have imagined, each individually named person in this story was connected to either character, and had a distinguished role in their lives. With this book I also learned more about the time period, and how dangerous it used to be.
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.
In The Devil in the White City Erik Larson told the stories of two brilliant men at the same time. One man was a nice, caring, hard-working, and a family man; the other was a deceitful, cheater, with a twisted appetite to murder young women and children. Burnham’s father wanted him to go to Harvard or Yale so bad had forced Burnham to study with a multitude of private tutors. Burnham had a severe anxiety disorder which made him so anxious he did not perform well on tests... therefore he never passed.
The Chicago World Fair stirred many emotions in this great time of industrialization, but not only was Chicago shining in the spotlight from the fair, it was also promoting something much more sinister, this dark enclosing spotlight shined directly on H.H Holmes. Burnham the leader of the World Fair and H. H Holmes the notorious serial killer, are the two main characters in this novel that Erik Larson uses the balance between light and dark between these two’s personalities. In the novel The Devil in the White City Erik Larson uses Imagery, paradox, and alliteration to show the balance between the light and dark in the ever growing city of Chicago. Imagery paints an ever expanding picture for the audience, the detailed descriptions such as “but his eyes are as blue as ever, bluer at this instant by proximity to the sea" (Larson 3).
The juxtaposition of two opposing stories is enough to get anyone’s head spinning. Comparing the glamorous production of the Chicago World Fair to the ominous destruction and killing caused by H.H. Holmes in the background is all the more interesting. Erik Larson’s 2003 nonfiction novel does just that. One would never think to relate murder to art until after reading this book. In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson uses figurative language, imagery, and juxtaposition to create a vivid illustration of the contrast between good and evil in Chicago in 1893.
Everyone tends to act differently in some point of their life. It’s in the manner people act that dictates the real character in each person. For Herman Mudgett (H. H. Holmes) his actions were the very essence of contradiction much like the man described in the poem If Four is then this is a Parade for they share a similar behavioral pattern. The poet describes a person who has eight different personalities, five are harmless while the others are toxic.
Although Capote writes of how welcoming and peaceful the Kansas town of Holcomb is, his main purpose of describing the town is to emphasize the changes that take place in the wake of one family’s murder, therefore Capote is able to articulate the shifts in the community into an embodiment of a seventh death. Capote utilizes personification to add a sense of fear to the pallet of feelings that the citizens in Holcomb have been constrained to. He first describes how out of character the town has become simply by their purchase of locks, and goes on to discredit the locks by saying: “Imagination, of course, can open any door---turn the key and let terror walk right in” (Capote 88). The personification of imagination, making it able to open any door, gives the thought of imagination a complex connotation. It makes the reader contemplate of the possibilities that a non-physical concept can make possible in the physical world.
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.
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).
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.
The book follows his struggle and work to put this huge fair together, and also make it a huge profiting attraction. He faces many obstacles and internal conflict while doing so. The second is H. H. Holmes, an insane serial killer who was active during the existence of the fair. He had different businesses and practices he would use to lure women, in order to kill them and sometimes the women in their families. The book takes place in Chicago during the early 1890s, as
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.
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.
The use of diction and syntax in this section creates an irritating atmosphere to stress the annoyance of the Columbian Guards. Larson’s evocative word choice for “disease” emphasizes the visitors' contagious curiosity as if they were part of a newspaper press. This displays to the readers as a stressful event for the Columbian Guards as they’re continuously “hammered with questions.” Furthermore, syntax was used in “the fair was so big, so beyond grasp” to create a fragmented and tiring effect for the readers due to the unimaginable pool of people inside of the fair. The fragmented phrases were embedded again in “it was a disease, a rhetorical smallpox” to convey the Columbian Guards harsh depiction of the visitors' nuisances.
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.