Bright Lights Big City Analysis

By writing The Devil in the White City in the form of a dual-narrative, Larson brings both stories to a level of excellence that neither could reach on its own. The interesting and informative chapters detailing the fair are complemented nicely by the suspenseful and thrilling installments of America’s first serial killer.

Using descriptive diction such as “eerie” and “swamp” readers can imagine an unpleasant city rustling with filth and crime. Larson exposes that Chicago had “auras of mosquitoes” in its midst. Readers automatically see Chicago as a filthy and troublesome town when they associate it with mosquitoes. This view of Chicago created by Larson further achieves his purpose to show the downside of Chicago during the time the World Fair was being constructed and attended. When the World Fair was finished, Larson described the nights, “the lamps that laced every building and walkway produced the most elaborate demonstration of electric illumination ever attempted” (254). Larson says the lamps “laced” the walkways in the white city which allows readers to picture the city in a whimsical way. The feeling of the word “laced” sits with readers in a positive way. Thus, Larson can achieve the purpose of forcing readers to see the white city in a luxurious fashion. Also, Larson mentions that the lighting was “elaborate.” Readers see the white city as a sophisticated and lavish place rather than how they see the black city. Larson again is able to persuade readers into believing the magic of the white city. Larson calls upon imagery to construct the two sides of Chicago.

In this novel, Larson helps readers make sense of what was new about big cities at the end of the nineteenth century—transportation, communication, electricity, anonymity—by showing how these aspects of

George could not turn his back on New York City because the city had never turned its back on him, even when he had absolutely nothing. The effects of being raised in this sometimes cruel, yet prosperous environment is evident in the life of George Andrews; he represents not only the harsh

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.

Erik Larson uses a skilled combination of rhetorical strategies and syntactical devices throughout Devil in the White City to not only paint a comparative narrative but also to create powerfully alluring atmosphere that highlights the juxtaposition of the eriness of serial murders with the detailed description of the Chicago World’s Fair. Through the employment of foreshadowing, juxtaposition, and deliberate humanization, Larson creates a vividly compelling account of two stories for the purpose of assembling a story that is rich with complexity and, when it come to certain characters, controversy as to the nature of certain characters.

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.

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 interplay of dark and light motifs underlies the narrator’s most recent hardship. On his way home on the subway, the narrator comes across his brother’s name in a newspaper and “stared at it in the swinging lights of the subway car, and in the faces and bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the darkness which roared outside” (Baldwin). Riding in the light of the subway car, the author makes the non-suspecting narrator subject to suffering, unguarded by the protective cloak of the outside darkness. Made vulnerable by the exposed light and people surrounding him, the narrator is hit harder by the unexpected news than if he had read it in the darkness of his private room. Under the “swinging lights,” the narrator is not prepared to cope with the troubling news. This emphasizes the importance of light as a symbol for one’s need of camouflage to properly cope with tragedy.

Had Felice not offered up Chicago as a new place of residence, Jake would have wound up exactly how he’d started, having been “thinking a gitting away from the stinking mess [of Harlem],” a place he’d previously designated as home, to “go on off to the sea again” (McKay 322). Throughout the text, Jake frequents a variety of unique places, from Harlem to Pittsburgh to Brooklyn to the train in which he “had taken [a] job on the railroad” (McKay 125). McKay’s audience is privy to a plethora of details regarding Jake’s rousing endeavors in every new location he discovers. Home to Harlem’s audience watches as “that strange, elusive something” in Jake catches him and has him “[roaming] away” and “wandering to some unknown new port, caught … by some romantic rhythm, color, face, passing through cabarets, saloons, speakeasies,” and so on; in short, the emphasis on Jake’s travels is on his restlessness in his desire for movement rather than a search for some inner truth he may hold (McKay 41). Thus, the picaresque novel employment of the episodic form is vital for Home to Harlem as it allows for the motif of movement to be used for its potential. Not only that, though, but it can easily be inferred that Claude McKay designed his novel to be structured in such a way with a degree of intentionality. For whatever reason, McKay understood that an episodic format was the best to display Jake’s story. Thus, his audience must

Murder, magic, and madness – those words succinctly described the World’s Fair, according to bestselling author Erik Larson. In his nearly legendary book, “the Devil in the White City,” the reader is led on a fantastical journey through the creation of a city of wonder and lights and through the horrors lurking behind closed doors. The vivid tales of two men – Daniel Burnham, a brilliant architect; and H. H. Holmes, a cunning serial killer – are subtly intertwined in the story of the White City. At least, that was what Erik Larson tried to present it as. Admittedly, Larson is to be commended for creatively portraying true facts in the form of a nonfiction narrative or novel; however, I dare say that “the Devil in the White City” greatly suffered

H.G. Bissinger tells the story of the obsessive town of Odessa, Texas in his book, Friday Night Lights. This town has a toxic obsession with high school football and wastes away the week, only seeking the excitement of Friday nights that are filled with Panther football. The expectations held for the athletes of Odessa are suicidal and the preparation for life outside of high school is almost non existent. The town of Mount Vernon, Iowa also lives for Friday nights, however it has a healthy balance between the thrilling football nights and ordinary, day to day life. Mount Vernon athletes are held to reasonable standards and are thoroughly being prepared for a successful future. The town of Odessa is an insane town with twisted ideas that

Earnest Hemingway is one of Americas foremost authors. His many works, their style, themes and parallels to his actual life have been the focus of millions of people as his writing style set him apart from all other authors. Many conclusions and parallels can be derived from Earnest Hemingway's works. In the three stories I review, ?Hills Like White Elephants?, ?Indian Camp? and ?A Clean, Well-lighted Place? we will be covering how Hemingway uses foreigners, the service industry and females as the backbones of these stories. These techniques play such a critical role in the following stories that Hemingway would be unable to move the plot or character development forward without them.

into a pattern of lines. When I walked in the street, lights from stores and

According to Marshall Berman, Modernity is a term of art used in the Humanities and Social Sciences to designate both a historical period as well as the ensemble of a particular socio cultural norms attitudes and practices that arose in post medieval Europe and have developed since in various ways and at various times around the world. (Berman 2010, 15-36)