Sonal Lopes
Prof. Prasita Mukherjee
TYBA 105
UID: 131096
A.ENG 6.03
17 January 2016 TALES OF THE CITY
While walking through a city, the pedestrian creates the city. Due to urbanisation people travel from one city to another and thus start exploring the new cities culture and traditions and thus this person becomes flaneur in the new city. Flaneur was a concept first mentioned by Charles Baudelaire in his writings. A flaneur is the casual wanderer observer and reporter of street life in the modern city. In the twentieth-century Walter Benjamin returned to the concept of the flaneur with his work The Arcades Project. In The Arcades Project, Benjamin puts forward two complementary concepts to explain human response to modern city life. Erlebnis and Erfahrung.The city walker can be understood as an analogy with the flaneur. There are two kinds of spaces: geographical spaces and time spaces. Characters ‘travel’ to spaces and places and become the stranger- ‘flaneur’ and his view of the city is the ‘tales of the city’. Cinema itself acts as if influenced by the flaneur own perception or story of the modern city life and space. Outsourced is a romantic comedy film released in the United States in 2006 and directed by John Jeffcoat, Outsourced is about a Seattle call centre manager named Todd Anderson whose job, along with his staff, is outsourced to India. Therefore now Todd must travel to India in order to train
by chance. Coincidences are a main factor in the book and play a great role in the fallout of the
(insert an attention grabber, such as a quote or question). In Erik Larson's “The Devil in the White City”, (a nonfiction novel that spans the years surrounding the building of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair) that recreates the lives of two real men, Daniel Burnham, the architect who builds the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and H. H. Holmes, the serial killer who exploits the fair to find his victims. Larson uses intense imagery, juxtaposition, and allusion to create pure and immoral tones between Daniel Burnham and H. H. Holmes. In the novel Larson uses intenses imagery to thoroughly illustrate the coexistence of good and evil.
Larson’s, The Devil in the White City, recounts a defining time period for America. Larson sheds light on the ageless conflict: Good v.s. Evil, as he recounts the events that took place at the fair that changed America. With America falling behind in global dominances and its need to strive, Daniel Burnham tries to successfully construct the Chicago World's fair and hopes it will spark the turn of the century. As Burnham tries to builds up the White City, and while H. H. Holmes flourished in the dominant Black City, Larson takes the reader on a tour of both cities. As Holmes lives in the shadows of the Black City, he successfully murders many people without any suspicion. Holmes’s ability to manipulate, his charisma, and his bravado marks
In Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson utilizes the idea of a “devil” during a time of when Chicago was prospering to showcase the evil lurking behind the mirage of wealth and beauty. The speaker is a third person omniscient narrator who has known about Burnham and Holmes life Chicago in the late-nineteenth century. The audience is intended for readers who enjoy non-fiction thriller novels or wants to know about the historical event from different viewpoints. The purpose is to entertain the audience but also teach them about the coexistence and balance of “good” and “evil” in one city. The subject is about Chicago during the Columbian Exposition, focusing on the juxtaposition of the lives of Burnham and Holmes. The tone shifts throughout the novel between every other chapter when there is a change in character since they have different thoughts and settings. Larson uses this to emphasize the universal themes of harmonization of polar opposites. He contrasts the two demeanors of Chicago, the white city was Burnham’s fair, also known a dream land. On the other hand, the black city is Holmes’ house of terror.
In the novel The Devil in the White City, Author Erik Larson uses imagery, irony, and juxtaposition to parallel the good and evil sides of the city of Chicago during the 1893 World’s Fair. Larson takes a more upbeat, joyous tone while following the story of Burnham and the architects designing the World Fair, but the tone turns much darker when perspectives change and we follow the plot of H.H. Holmes, America’s first known serial killer. Using rhetorical devices like imagery, diction, and syntax, Larson is able to paint a picture of Chicago from both the good and evil side, setting a more serious and ominous tone for the novel.
The Columbian World’s Exposition of 1893 marked an important time in American history. The overall fame of the World’s Columbian Exposition, or also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, is in large part due to the spread of ideas and inventions that originated at the fair itself. The novel, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, depicts a clear portrait of the fair’s impact in the time leading up to, during, and after the exposition. The fair established itself as a metaphorical historical monument, in the way that it honored the past and served as a memorial to Columbus, and the way that it impacted future societies and events. The fair began as a show of superiority on part of American society, over all other countries, like France or England. Regarding competition, the fair sought to “Out-Eiffel” Gustave Eiffel, architect of the Eiffel Tower, for architecture, and to outclass the rest of the world in all other fields. The fair also served to foreshadow the growing powers of America both intellectually and militarily; the spirit and ideas shown at the fair showed the emergence of intellectual superiority that would only serve as a sample of the achievements of society that were yet to come. The intellectual productions of the fair can be attributed to the architectural firm coordinating the event, Burnham and Root. The firm was headed by Daniel Burnham and John Root, both accredited as the brightest in their field. Under their management, the Chicago World’s Fair
Part 1: The Devil in the White City is a true crime novel that takes place during the building, during, and aftermath of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. There are 2 main narratives,the first is Daniel Burnham, one of the main architects and designers of the World 's Fair. This plot line shows the extreme stress that all of the Architects experienced, as the construction was slow to start, slow to build, and was filled with shortages, deaths, and awful communication. The second narrative is centered around H.H. Holmes, one of America’s first notorious serial killers. His narrative takes place in his “Murder Castle” and shows his complicated history and his numerous credit scams, identity scams, and most importantly,
Everyone knew that when one stayed in the water too long, one drowned. However, that was not the case. In Alden Nowlan’s, “The Fall of the City,” Teddy was a young boy who had a very vivid imagination. Although at times it went to the dark side, it was ultimately the mistreatment from his aunt and uncle which cause Teddy to destroy his city. For example, his uncle’s threats of physical abuse leaded Teddy drowned in his imagination, the only place where he can feel safer. Although Teddy hardly spoke back to his uncle, he was still threatened that he will not “be able to sit down the rest of the week.” The threat isolated Teddy from his uncle and Teddy felt as if he has no one to turn to. Without someone who truly understands his feelings,
“The sight is so inspiring that all conversation stopped, and all were lost in admiration of this grand sight. The equal of it I have never seen, and i doubt very much if i shall again’” (Larson 271). Erik Larson’s nonfiction novel The Devil in the White City centers around the Chicago World’s Fair, also known as The World’s Columbian Exposition, and two of the men whose lives were intertwined: Daniel Burnham and H. H. Holmes. Daniel Burnham was the chief architect who built the World’s fair with a grandeur image in his mind; in contrast, H. H. Holmes used the fair to masquerade his horrific and numerous murders, exploiting the fair. In The Devil in the White City, author Erik Larson uses vivid imagery, captivating tone, and figurative language to portray the dreamlike qualities of the White City.
Tenement life was tough in New York City at the turn of the nineteenth century, as portrayed in the historical novel, City of Orphans. This portrayal depicted an immigrant family that was living hand to mouth in a tenement. This depiction is very accurate to the harsh reality that many families had to come to face. It was tough from the conditions, lifestyles, and space. Maks ' family was barely living off their earnings and was susceptible to disease and fraud. The immigrants were easy targets for poverty and sickness, and all too often fell through cracks in the floor. Their lives, as bad as they were, were not as bad as the ones they led in the countries they fled from to escape prosecution and to seek a better life.
The Devil in the White City, written by Erik Larson, it is a book about the events of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 that happened in Chicago. It was the perfect opportunity to display the strength of America to the world. Larson recreates the Fair with an thrilling tone, allowing us to experience its magnificence as the visitors would have in 1893. Larson describes the fair as "perfect", a "fairest dream", and "beautiful.” At the same time, Larson uses a somber tone in his descriptions of Holmes and his castle. He recreates the macabre, choosing to put emphasis on words like "possessed", "woefully and gruesomely.” It is quite an obvious contrast from his cheery descriptions of the White City. Larson uses compare and contrast and irony throughout the story White and Black city.
Molly Ivins once said, “Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful.” She has been shown to be correct in many works, including A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens uses his position as an influential writer in Victorian London to call for change and reformation. He mindfully mocks the workings and current events of Victorian London, and he uses satire to call certain situations to light so that they will never be repeated. This can be seen through scenes in A Tale of Two Cities, where Dickens mocks the London judicial system, the French nobility, and The French Republic which formed after the revolution.
Throughout the story, Lost in the City by Edwards P. Jones there are many different ways the city influences the different characters. Lost in the City takes the reader through some difficult times of many African Americans in Washington. The different characters form bond that cannot be broken in order to handle what life throws at them. In the stories "The Girl Who Raised Pigeons" and "The First Day" the city influences the different main characters in different ways, to help them come of age.
One might believe that because capital punishment plays such a large role in Charles Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities, that Dickens himself is a supporter of it. This just simply is not true. Dickens uses capitol punishment as a tool to define the evil embodied in both the French ruling class, and the opposing lower class during the French Revolution; as well as comment on the sheep-like nature of humankind.
The Book of the City of Ladies, published by the author, Christine De Pizan in the early 1400s, is known to be one of the earliest works of feminism. In her work Pizan constructs an allegorical city called “The City of Ladies,” a city where only women livelived, to defend the “chosen,” virtuous women from the misogyny of the male authors. Although the text may have sounded dreamy and fantastical for female readers at the time, listing their capabilities, intelligence and strengths, de Pizan cleverly includes a stratagem for females to follow in order to obtain rights. The article “Christine De Pizan’s City of Ladies: A Monumental (Re)construction of, by, and for Women of All Time” written by Jill E. Wagner analyzes the allegorical meaning