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Chicago's World Fair history
Chicago's World Fair history
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Chicago's World Fair history
Chicago's World Fair history
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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 book “The Devil in The White City” was composed by Erik Larson. This book re-creates the history of the Chicago’s World Fair of 1893. Larson wanted to highlight precisely what went down at the World Fair of 1893 and why everything happened. This book was actually based off of Chicago’s World Fair, as well as what happened and put his own twist on it story. The author has several purposes within this book, which is a narrative non-fiction (a history with a strong story).
In _The White Scourge_, Neil Foley uses a wealth of archival materials and oral histories to illuminate the construction and reconstruction of whiteness and the connection of this whiteness to power. Focusing largely on cotton culture in central Texas, Foley 's book deconstructs whiteness through a new and detailed analysis of race, class, and gender. The most intriguing aspect of this book is its comparison of the impact of whiteness on various ethno-racial classes and how each struggled in relation to the other to develop a meaningful existence. _
In the nonfiction novel, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” American author, John Berendt, gives his account of a 1981 murder case that took place in Savannah, Georgia. Even though during the 1980s, United States as a whole is heading towards prosperity as the Cold War ends in 1981, he repeatedly touches back on the undercurrent southern racism. Berendt draws a vivid picture of Southern Gothic weirdness to convey, using real life occurrences and characters, the idea of what kind of people exist in the community to readers of all places. The writer uses rhetorical devices such as description, foreshadowing, and dysphemism to successfully depict the occurrences in suspenseful yet humorous tone.
In The Devil in the White City, a world’s fair is being built in 1893 and Chicago is the chosen destination. Two architects, Daniel Burnham and John Root, are awarded the job of setting up the construction of the fair. Their main goal being to surpass the amazement of the building of the Eiffel Tower in Paris a few years before. Burnham faces many problems throughout the construction of the fair, one important one being that his partner, John Root, dies at the beginning of the organization process for the fair. Burnham is left to be the main architect and is faced with a lot of pressure coming from Chicago and the rest of the United States.
Washington Irving was the author of “The Devil and Tom Walker”, in his early life he began to study to be a lawyer, but soon falling away from that finding he had more interest in traveling and writing. Irving’s work including, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”, became known as an important part of American heritage today. The setting was in New England, the year 1727, just at the time that earthquakes were prevaled. Around the area of where Tom Walker had lived with his wife, Tom had found an old Indian fort which he chose to rest at on his way homeward. The main characters in “The Devil and Tom Walker” are obviously the Devil, “a great black man...neither Negro nor Indian” and Tom Walker who was a “miserly fellow”.
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.
“Circumspect Police Ends the Drop in Crime?” This debate topic speaks about police being less proactive, because of vitriol, and causing an increase in crime rates. This debate topic is not directly related to the book, Ghettoside, but falls into the same bracket. The debate talks about the police becoming less involved because of denunciation, and rates of crimes increasing because of that. Ghettoside talks about the black-on-black homicide rates going up, one reason, because of the ignorance of the police.
If the the non fiction novel “The Devil in the White City” were to have been written 10 years ago or even 100, it would have definitely been written differently. Although history is history, and some events cannot be changed, the way in which author Erik Larson wrote the novel would fluctuate. The further and further we look back into the past, the more difficult it is to put yourself in that time period and feel what characters could’ve felt in those very moments. With advancements being made on the daily, Erik wrote his book at the perfect time to grasp readers from the eldest and latest generations.
Holmes, the mysterious serial killer. Burnham and Holmes have many similarities, the biggest one being their sheer determination to reach a goal or get what they want, which is used towards the manufacture of good, or the manufacture of sorrow. However their differences separate them apart, their biggest difference being their actions, as one build the World’s Fair and does this for the wellbeing of everyone, while Holmes uses his talent to kill many people, and cause commotion in Chicago and such. In conclusion, Erik Larson tries to show the underlying difference between good and evil, and how no matter what, evil is accompanied by good, and vice versa. Even the title of the book “The Devil in the White City” shows the most prominent theme of this amazing novel, by Erik
“Late one night, when we were all in bed, Mrs. O’Leary lit a lantern in the shed. Her cow kicked it over, then winked her eye and said, ‘There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight!’ (Abbott)” In 1871, a disaster arose in Chicago and reshaped the city permanently: a fire scorched around three square miles of land, leveled thousands of buildings, and stole hundreds of lives (“Chicago Fire of 1871”). Although the effects of this tragedy were harrowing, it actually served as the catalyst which allowed Chicago to become one of America’s largest, most influential cities.
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).
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.
The authors purpose of writing The Devil in the White City was to show the darkness that lurked around the World’s Columbian Exposition. In the novel H. H. Holmes is a charming, handsome man that uses his charm to murder women. H. H. Holmes used the fair to seduce women and bring them to his World Fair hotel. But, the author is also criticizing how gullible and naive these women were that Holmes was able to seduce and kill. “He sensed vulnerability, sensed it the way another man might capture the trace of a woman’s perfume” (36).
When did people start getting accused of being witches and wizards from their neighbors, family members, or friends? Why would someone accuse others of being witches? All the questions are asked and examined by Emerson Baker. The author of The Devil in Great Island is Emerson W. Baker. Although, he goes by his nickname “Tad”.