Daniel Burnham Vs. The Devil In The White City

Burnham and his partner John Root were Chicago’s leading architects. Daniel Burnham had experience in designing buildings that had never been attempted. Despite the soil conditions, Burnham and Root built the very first skyscraper, The Montauk. Burnham had extraordinary managerial and organizational skills. Burnham and Root together were able to build their firm to be one of the best in Chicago. They continued to do many challenging projects such as the Rookery and the Monadnock. Daniel Burnham handled many difficult times before he made a positive name for himself. Burnham was also very good to all his employees, “He installed a gym. During lunch hour employees played handball. Burnham gave fencing lessons. Root played impromptu recitals on a rented piano,” (Larson 2003, 27). In 1885, a fire had destroyed the Grannis Block that was Burnham and Root’s flagship structure. In 1888, “a hotel they had designed in Kansas City collapsed during construction, injuring several men and killing one” (Larson 2003, 29). With all the verbal attacks on Burnham’s career over both of the incidences, he remained very calm, but he was still very heartbroken.

The attachment “Murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed america” to the title hardly does the novel justice. Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, a nonfiction novel that surrounds the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as The World’s Columbian Exposition. The novel follows 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. Many new inventions were introduced at the fair, such as Juicy Fruit gum, the Ferris Wheel, and many other novel ideas that impacted the lives of many people for generations. The beautiful fair Burnham creates provides the perfect distraction and lure for Holmes’ activities. In his novel The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson suggests that good and evil coexist in the world by using charged language, imagery and juxtaposition to show although people view the fair as a perfect dreamland immune to evil, it still lurks outside in the dark, influencing the rest of the world.

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

The theme of appearance vs reality is prominent throughout The Devil in the White City. The novel was written in 2 storylines; one for the protagonist, Daniel Burnham, and another for the antagonist, Dr. H. H. Holmes. During the 1800’s, Burnham and his partner Root were promising, young architects trying to make a living for themselves in Chicago. On the other hand, Holmes was a conniving murderer who had traveled throughout the east before seemingly settling down in Chicago. When the prospect of the World Fair arose in Chicago, both men saw this as a huge opportunity. Burnham became a considerable leader, builder, and organizer of the fair; at the same time, Holmes used the fair to attract victims. Larson portrayed both men as having

The book The Devil In the White City by Erik Larson re-tells the story of Chicago’s World Fair, while H.H. Holmes, also known as “America’s first serial killer”, emerges as a dark force within the fair. Switching back and forth between the experiences of the head fair administrator, Burnham, and the other directors along with the evils of Holmes, the reader begins to understand the world of tragedy and crime that lies behind the public’s excitement. From a devastating storm to the deaths of multiple builders, suspense builds as tragedy is followed by more tragedy. Through the use of contrasting ideas and ethical clauses highlighted by symbolisms and descriptions within the book, Erik Larson creates an underlying argument that one’s pursuit of pride and success often causes destruction and comes at the price of another’s well-being.

(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

Tucker Max’s famous words state that “the devil doesn’t come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for.” H. H. Holmes, a main character in Erik Larson’s 2003 novel titled “The Devil in the White City,” exemplifies Max’s statement. This novel recreates the lives of Daniel Burnham, the architect of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and H. H. Holmes, the mastermind serial killer who takes advantage of the fair to find his victims. Larson demonstrates the contesting forces of good and evil within the World’s Fair among his use of figurative language, allusion, and imagery to emphasize that evil can lurk in the shadows as well as in plain sight.

In the novel, The Devil in The White City, the author, Erik Larson, utilizes a back and forth organizational pattern between the two main characters, Daniel H. Burnham and H.H. Holmes. It showed how their lives contributed to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Larson began the novel where the story actually ends in 1912 on the Olympic, a sister ship of the Titanic. The character, Burnham, waits for a response from his initial message to his friend Millet, aboard the Titanic. What Burnham doesn’t know at that time, is that the Titanic sunk and his friend Millet is dead. This is the point to which the story begins. Burnham flashes back to the building of the World’s fair while waiting for his friend’s response.

In the 19th century the World's Columbian Exposition came about. It brought a time of American pride and perceived tranquility. The fair was a multi layered event that had new inventions come about as well as having beautiful features, although there were some things happening deeper in the fair such as murders that create eeriness throughout the book. Two prominent characters in the book are Daniel Burnham and H.H Holmes. Burnham an architect and Holmes a serial killer, these two main characters were the main difference between the light and the dark of the fair throughout the book. Erik Larson uses tone, imagery, and figurative language in The Devil in the White City in order to express the difference between the two characters motives and goals for the Chicago fair, demonstrating the good and evil in a peaceful time.

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 United States of America is characterized in many different ways. Some people may say it is a land of opportunity and success, while others would argue that it is a place of regret. In The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson, the United States is described as a mixture of good and evil. Larson accomplishes this reflection of America by telling a story which follows two different men with opposing motives. The first is Burnham, the architect in charge of building the World’s Fair. He is determined to make America a prideful nation. However, Holmes, the serial killer, has despicable reasons for wanting the fair. These two characters help show who America is and what it stands for. In his book, Erik Larson indicates that the United States is comprised of both good and evil by displaying the motives, conflicts, and resourcefulness of its people.

     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 Magic of Mister Daniel Burnham would be the tool that would be behind the greatest fair that Chicago has even seen in the history of its city. Daniel Burnham was forty-three years old at the time he would receive news that Chicago would be the site of the fair, and he worked as an architect in Chicago. He was one of the best architects in Chicago because he and James Root were the first to design the towering building that would make cities build upwards, the skyscraper. That high achievement was would test Daniel Burnham and James Root even more so because of the fair that they were tasked to construct and build up eventually. The