Analysis Of The Devil In The White City By Erik Larson

Daniel Burnham had to overcome many manmade and natural obstacles in building the World’s Fair. The most important obstacle Burnham had to overcome was time. He was only given three years to build the World’s Fair. Daniel Burnham hired four

Throughout parts I and II of the novel, Larson switches between the plotline of Burnham and the plotline of Holmes. The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair is introduced in chapter two. In this chapter we are also given more

“Chicago was nothing more than a greedy, hog-slaughtering backwater.” (Larson pg 13). This wasn’t how Burnham wanted people to look at Chicago. In order to influence the public to have a better attitude towards the city, he had to ensure that the World’s Fair was perfect. Burnham knew that failure would take away from his political power, as well as the city’s reputation. “Failure would bring humiliation from which the city would not soon recover, given how heartily its leading men had boasted that Chicago would prevail.” (Larson pg 13). By establishing the quality of the fair, Burnham is attempting to gain some favorable popularity for himself as well as Chicago. The fair’s success boosted political power and reputation for Chicago and Burnham. “Both Harvard and Yale granted him honorary master’s degrees in recognition of his achievement in building the fair...For him the awards were a form of redemption.” (Larson pg 376). Burnham failed to gain admission to both universities but after he built the fair they acknowledged his proficiency. His success increased his power and public reputation. “Burnham tried to anticipate every conceivable threat to the fair. Aware of Chicago's reputation for vice and violence, Burnham insisted on the creation of a large police force, the Columbian Guard, and placed it under the command of Colonel Edmund Rice, a man

From the beginning, Larson uses methods of comparing and contrasting to create a juxtaposition between the beauty of the fair and the problems it causes. This becomes apparent due to the continuous tone shifts moving from an objective re-telling of events to eerie descriptions of devastation and violence. One example is the chapter “Night Is The Magician” when compared to the chapter “Storm and Fire”; the first alluringly describes the fair stating that it was “beautifully unlike” anything visitors were used to seeing. While the other chapter describes the fire that broke out at the fair and resulted in the deaths of several firemen present. The difference between the tone used in these chapters effectively highlights not only Larson’s argument, but also the large gap between what the public experienced and the distress experienced by those running the fair. Along with changes in tone, diction with conflicting connotations furthers the duality of the book. In times of success the author uses words with a more lively connotations such as “otherworldly” or “majesty”, while other chapters seem very hopeless due to diction like “degradation” or “wobbling”. His use of alternating story lines contributes by giving readers a look into Holmes’ vicious methods of killing, while continuing to provide a more detached look at Burnham, Root, and Olmsted’s deterioration as they become inundated

Burnham and Holmes, on the other hand, were giving America a rise in economic power. People were still coming to the fair to escape the anxiety the depression brought upon them . The people that stayed at Holmes' hotel were also trying to flee from reality all while walking into an unexpected death trap. Though while one man is trying to run a business and the other is a psychopath, both contribute to the economic expansion in America. Their businesses trade relaxation for money and expansion.

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

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,

The Devil In The White City, by Erik Larson, mainly revolves around the stories of two people, Daniel Hudson Burnham and H.H. Holmes during the Columbian Exposition in 1893. Due to the time period of the book falling in-between the end of an era and the beginning of an era, it is argued as to whether it is the end of the Industrial/Gilded Age or the beginning of the Progressive Era. The Industrial/Gilded Age was a time of unrestricted growth of the businesses and the upper class at the expense of others due to laissez-faire policies of the government. The Progressive Era was about the United States fixing the wrongs of the previous era through a progressive movement. During this time the United

Daniel Burnham and John Root’s project of the Chicago World’s Fair convinces the reader that the project was tremendously rushed. Burnham and Root faced a lot of complications and dilemmas. Starting with the time constraint when the Fair needed to be finished. “If an engineer capable of besting Eiffel did not step forward soon, Burnham knew, there simply would not be enough time left to build anything worthy of the fair. Somehow he needed to rouse the engineers of America.” (155) Burnham was given ___ years until the opening date May 1, 1893. This project had to be done swiftly and still galvanize America, and more importantly the world. With this difficulty that Burnham had to confront, he also had to confront his architectural team about their artistic views and how they could comprise on an unambiguous theme for the Fair. Certainly with the time limitations Burnham and his team of employees faced, some obstacles would occur with the treatment of his workers. Burnham had to open the fair in two weeks, it was mid-April, “ the weather was gorgeous, but other cruelties abounded. Four exposition workers lost their lives, two from fractured skulls, two electrocuted. The

The Chicago World’s Fair occurred in 1893 to commemorate American history, specifically the landing of Christopher Columbus. This event had such a mass popularity that a book was written to commemorate the fair itself; it was titled, The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson. The portrayal of history in this novel is quite accurate when expressing the time period of the late nineteenth century in an elevated format, which allows the reader to draw comparisons of how the time mirrors the present, as well as differences in the ways it contrasts modern living, and most importantly allows a grasp of a total picture of the time period itself.

The Devil in the White City is a novel that covers the creation and construction of the 1893 World’s Columbian Expo. The novel contains two plot lines. The first plotline follows Daniel Burnham. Near the beginning of the book, Burnham is left alone to work on the project after the death of his partner, John Root. Through the rest of the novel, Burnham faces many obstacles that threaten the creation of the World’s Columbian Expo. Despite the challenges that he faced, Burnham persists, and the World's Columbian Expo opened in 1893. After the fair began, Burnham faced many new challenges, such as turning a profit in a suffering economy. Despite all the obstacles that Burnham faces, Burnham created a successful fair that pays off its debts and turns a profit.

Although it faced many obstacles in construction, time, and many other aspects, the Chicago World’s fair was immensely successful and served as a great boast of American pride. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a nonfiction novel, taking place during the building of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, also known as The World’s Columbian Exposition. Each chapter of the novel alternates to show the lives of the two real men during this time: the main architect of the fair, Daniel Burnham, and the charming behind the scenes serial killer, H. H. Holmes. In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson effectively utilizes juxtaposition between “the Black City” and “the White City,” metaphorical figurative language, and detailed imagery in order to portray the dreamlike qualities of the White City.

     The Fair, with its mix of East and West and everything in between, became a microcosm of the country that was building it. In it, you see all the conflicts that were going on in the country at the time. Probably the most obvious is the labor that built the fair. At this point in history, the working class of the country, and indeed the world, were slowly, but unstoppably moving toward unionization, fairer working conditions and change that is very much the same as the working class of today. You also saw the unchecked, without government regulated capitalism, and the very strong personalities of the men who ran the fair. In my opinion, it was the personalities of the leaders of the fair, as much as anything, that resulted in its amazing pace and scale of construction being pulled off. Burnham is a

The thought of Chicago hosting the world’s fair would be daunting at first, but it could turn around the reputation of Chicago from one of a city of gloom and darkness, to one of a city of light and progress from the Great Chicago fire of 1871, and that city would be fascinating for years to come. Chicago would get an economic shot in the arm from the revenue that it would get from hosting the 1893 World Fair and it would make Chicago into a great city of America. The event and also the transformation that would happen to the city of Chicago would not have happened if it would not be for one great man who had taken up the challenge to make sure to host this 1893 World fair.