Erik Larson Essays

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

The Devil in the White City was written by Erik Larson and was published in 2003. By research, Larson recreates the lives of two real men in the Chicago World Fair. He uses two different plots to show some of the history during this time. One plot line is about Daniel Hudson Burnham, the man who builds the Chicago World Fair, and the other plot is about Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, the man who is a serial killer that goes through the fair to find his victims. The novel starts out by talking about how

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

The Devil in The White City is a nonfiction book, that takes place in the years before, during and after the Chicago’s World Fair in 1893. Erik Larson is famous for writing historical nonfiction; he spends weeks, maybe even months researching the interesting historical events, and writing them for the public to understand in a better context. The two main characters in this interesting historical non-fiction book are; the protagonist, Daniel Hudson Burnham; who is an architect and has built many

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

landing by Columbus, no address Harlow Higinbotham, George Davis, or Bertha Palmer; no presentation of awards, no praise for Burnham and Olmsted; no ‘Hail Columbia’; no mass rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’” (Larson 331). The repetition of the the word “no” and the long sentence structure allows Erik Larson to express to his readers how much was planned for the end of the fair and all the disappointment that was caused by this sudden death of Harrison. Making the sentence structure long, Larson’s conveys

book Devil in the White City, written by Erik Larson, is about the making of the World’s Fair, and the making of a serial killer, H. H. Holmes. The book talks about how the World’s Fair was planned by architects such as: Daniel Burnham, Frederick Olmstead, and Louis Sullivan. It also talks about how Holmes ended up in Chicago and how he started his businesses and his killings. The theme in Devil in the White City is about persistence paying off in the end. Larson uses solid examples of history to make

AP Lang 10-5-15 Devil in the White City Throughout Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City, the juxtaposition of dark and light exemplifies itself literally through the obvious physical dynamics of the plot as well as figuratively through the motives, personas, and circumstances of the contrasting central characters- Daniel H. Burnham, the renowned and capable chief architect and and Dr. H.H. Holmes, the manipulating urban serial killer. Larson depicts perfectly the intertwining of both the “black”

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. Larson’s positive word choice creates a

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. 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

come outweighed all of the negative points by far at the fair, also referred to as the Columbian Exposition. Inventions and architectural phenomena are delved into throughout the novelistic style non-fiction book The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Larson took a bold approach and intertwined many storylines and lives of people throughout the construction and ongoing of the exposition. By doing so, he gave readers a unique insight into all of

Peter William Sutcliffe is a British serial killer who was given the name “The Yorkshire Ripper” by the press. He was born on June 2, 1946 in Bingley, United Kingdom. As a boy he was reserved, and preferred spending time with his mother. He was raised in rather normal surroundings, his father; John Sutcliffe was a mill owner. Peter hated school. He found it hard to make friends and was often bullied. Once, unable to take anymore, he hid from school for a fortnight. When his parents and school realized

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

Dr. H. H. Holmes was a serial killer during the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Between the time he arrived in Chicago and the time of his death, it is said to be that he killed several hundred people. Holmes was born and raised in New Hampshire but eventually found his way to Chicago. He was a different man and found joy in killing humans. Most of his murders occurred in his Castle in Englewood near Chicago. The question is, why did Holmes pick Chicago of all places? Why not somewhere

In the novel "Isaac's Storm", Erik Larson talks about the impact of the Galveston hurricane. Erik Larson talks about what happened before, during, and after the Galveston hurricane. The Galveston hurricane occurred in 1900 and was one of the most destructive hurricanes of the early 20th century. The meteorologists in the story were confident in their technology, instruments, and resources that they had to track the hurricane. A man named Isaac Cline was a meteorologist with a very good understanding

Larson, Erik. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin. 1st Ed. New York: Crown Publishers, 2011. Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts offers vivid historical insight into the era of Hitler’s Germany as he rose to power beginning in 1933. Throughout this work the reader can see how Jews go from mistreatment to losing all privileges fast, while Hitler prepares Germany for war; the country is very tense. The book contains 449 pages; about 360 pages make

In the novel, Dead Wake by Erik Larson, the author depicts a true tale of the sinking of the Lusitania. After setting sail from New York on May 1st, 1915, the Lusitania came into contact with a German U-boat, known as the U-20, who eventually sank the ship and killed thousands six days later on May 7th, 1915. However, as simple as the case may seem, Larson believes that the Lusitania’s destruction was very preventable, but those in control of the ship’s aid seemed to benefit greatly from its obliteration

I read the book In The Garden Of Beasts by Erik Larson. This book wasn’t particularly interesting to me, but I read it for the sake of my grade. It was enjoyable to get a new perspective of someone looking at Germany as a pleasant place instead of a cruel, depressing place that killed Jews. Though the truth was discovered later in the story, the author, Erik Larson, did a nice job sharing a new perspective on the topic of Nazi Germany. After recovering from World War 1, the United States were trying

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. He carefully crafted H.H. Holmes to express what a lethal psychopath the man

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