Bright Lights, Big City And White Noise

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.

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

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.

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.

As for New York City, in the novel it is defined as the perfect place to live life to the fullest and not have a care of the world. As a reader, it is expected to envision this city full of lights as a bright, restless, and colorful place. Nick Carraway depicts New York City as a “...city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of

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

“This book is boring.” “This book is full of facts.” “I fell asleep reading this book.” These are the nonfiction genre stereotypes that most people think. Erik Larson changed that stereotype and wrote a nonfiction book with real characters and overall facts. The Devil in the White City does not only tell an elaborating true story, but it tries to grab the reader to believe that they are actually living in 1893 during the Chicago World’s Fair trials and tribulations. To tell this story, Larson combines qualities of a nonfiction book and a generic novel to successfully craft a narrative built on historical facts, therefore developing distinct persons in the cases and elaborating on what their possible feelings were.

Erik Larson is the author of Devil in the White City, a book paralleling the story of H.H.Holmes and the building of the Chicago World Fair. At the beginning we are introduced to the beginning of the next world fair. It is going to be held in Chicago, a city known for being dirty and having disease and sewer problems. In contrast, the architects of the world fair want it to be known as the white city, a place of wonder and history full enough to spend a week exploring. At the same time, we are also introduced to Holmes, whose given name was Herman Webster Mudgett, and the beginning of his obsession with women, that he later murders. Larson constructs his book differently than other authors, using organization, contrast, and emotions in unique

In The Only Traffic Signal On The Reservation That Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore, Sherman Alexie portrays the significance of reservation heroes and the motif of the broken traffic signal. In Speech Sounds, Octavia Butler demonstrates a detachment in society through an impairment in speech that corroborates with death and the development of children. When juxtaposed, the two stories have many clear distinctions. One is realistic-fiction while the other is science-fiction. Beneath the surface, however, the stories are very similar in nature. The two stories convey the common theme of struggling within an unhopeful environment. Furthermore, Sherman Alexie and Octavia Butler both symbolize progressions of hope. The comparison of the two stories unfold a new understanding of the author’s intentions for writing the story and why their choices of literary devices were most effective.

New York City has been in a constant state of change since the 1970’s. Evolving from a state of art and decrepitness to a glistening city of consumption. Yet in Jeremiah Moss’ book, Vanishing New York, the city did not “evolve” for the locals who breathed and lived in the city– the ones who made New York City the place to be, but rather for the big businesses who lure in the tourists who change the city into some kind of sister city to their middle American hometown. Moss uses the same ideas bell hooks wrote about in her “Eating the Other” essay, in that New Yorkers, the “other”, in all their artsy, queer, and ethnic ways are used to “spice up” the city, to make it a place worth coveting so that the rich and elite can sell a watered down/hollow

Erik Larson’s 2002 novel titled, The Devil in the White City, spans the years of the famous Chicago’s World’s Fair. This book coincides with the issues of a serial killer by the name of H.H Holmes and the World Fair. The World’s Fair was sought out to help bring a marvelous feel the city of Chicago with the creation of buildings. In actuality, the buildings were only temporary. To take the picturesque feel away from something that was supposed to be a well remembered beauty, Larson brings in the character of Holmes to mask the beauty with an evil feel. The task of this ended in success telling the story of the devil in the white city. The Devil in the White City embarks a journey set to make the city of Chicago marvelous through architecture and a new serial killer. Throughout the book there are strong and weak points as well as characters that peak interest.

Therefore, New York is represented as a very crowded city with a lot of things happening. Moreover, it seems an extremely loud city with people rushing everywhere and minding their own business.

DeLillo's novel is almost obsessively concerned with appliances: TVs, radios, microwaves etc. They are omnipresent, not only in the characters worlds but within the narrative itself. DeLillo repeatedly interrupts his narrative with sentences like "The TV said: And other trends that could dramatically impact our portfolio" (61) or "MasterCard, Visa, American Express" (100) or "That chirping sound was just the radiator" (94). Just as Jack's world is one suffused with such objects, so too is the narrative, a technique which DeLillo uses to force the reader into Jack Gladney's world. Objects play a dualistic role in Jack's familial life. Jack tells us that

Death is probably the most feared word in the English language. Its undesired uncertainty threatens society’s desire to believe that life never ends. Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise tells the bizarre story of how Jack Gladney and his family illustrate the postmodern ideas of religion, death, and popular culture. The theme of death’s influence over the character mentality, consumer lifestyle, and media manipulation is used often throughout DeLillo’s story.