Killing Mister Watson

Holmes had been born into a wealthy New Hampshire family and was given the name Herman Webster Mudgett (America’s Serial Killers). “If Mudgett or his brother or sister were bad, their strict Methodist parents sent them to the attic for a full day without speaking or eating,. Mudgett’s father was especially abusive after he’d been drinking - which was often” (Spikol). However, his father was a wealthy and respected citizen and had been the local postmaster for nearly twenty five years (Taylor). It is surprising an important member of the community was a child abuser. The abuse of his father may be one of the

    During the 1893 Columbian Exposition, H.H. Holmes was one of the first serial killers of America. Holmes would lure his victims into his building which he transformed into his “murder castle.” First he would manipulate his victims by coming off as a

The phrase “art imitates life” can be used to describe many works of literature. Authors and the stories they write are often influenced by the changing world around them along with the evolution of new perspectives and ways of thinking regarding a subject. While this may sound simply like a common literary trope, it is of great importance and significance in many genres of literature. None has this been more apparent than in both the anti-slavery and women’s empowerment movement of the early to mid-1800s. Two major influence authors in their respective subjects, Frederick Douglass and Fanny Fern, were heavily influenced by the changing societal trends of the time of which they expressed through their writing. Douglass’s speech in particular “What to a Slave is the 4th of July?” was heavily influenced by Douglass’s own personal experience as a slave as well as the rising prominence of the abolitionist movement in the United States. By referencing the contradictory nature of the Constitution relegating personal freedoms exclusively to white, property owning males, Douglass bluntly references the systematic inequalities faced by people of color in the United States. Never would the works of an African American author, especially one challenging the established institution of slavery, gain so much attention if not for the anti-slavery movement and shifting perspectives surrounding it.

In chapter 5, “The Vanished Settlements”, John Viele reveals information about the 21-year span of life on the Keys. The Civil War, living conditions, mosquitoes, fresh water, and isolation are some of the main hardships that many of the settlers had to experience, but only a few could endure the setbacks and live prosperous lives, as well as their families. Henry Geiger, Temple Pent, and Happy Jack were the most prosperous men during the hard times of the Key West, and through others around them, their stories can now live on.

Then, in 1995, the famous, lengthy trial of O.J Simpson took place on the national stage. These events directly tie in to The Watsons despite the time differences.

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, also known as The World's Columbian Exposition, 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. In the book, Holmes is not simply another mindless criminal breaking the law for the reason of money; Holmes is a twisted, yet highly intelligent individual that gains pleasure from the death of his victims. Larson is able to utilize tone, imagery, and syntax to dig into the mind of H.H. Holmes and reveal how he thinks and what inquires him to do horrific deeds.

The Second Seminole War ended in 1842. Shortly thereafter, Fitzpatrick’s nephew, William English, acquired the former’s Miami River possessions and reconstituted the slave plantation, adding new buildings to the complex. A man of large ambitions and vision, English platted the “Village of Miami” on the south bank of the river. He sold several lots in that development before leaving the area, at the beginning of the 1850s, for California and the gold rush.

Larry Watson, in Montana 1948, presents a story of a family that not only Wesley Hayden, as the sheriff of the town and the brother of the accused doctor, but the whole family struggles between the family loyalty and justice. Watson develops each character through own ethical dilemmas and the way they deal with those dilemmas. Since the novel starts with an unexpected event or secret of Uncle Frank, Watson organizes the whole novel in a fast and depressing rhythm. To make the novel more interesting to readers, Watson applies the rhetorical techniques such as symbol and parallelism to render the tense atmosphere and further expressed the characters’ inner mind.

According Florida Gulf Coast University Serial Killer Database, there has been 2,625 serial killers so far in the United States, the most of any country in the world. However, this trend all started out with H.H. Holmes: America’s first serial killer. H.H. Holmes was born in New Hampshire as Herman Webster Mudgett in 1861. He was extremely bright in school and excelled beyond the other kids in his class. Because of this, he was bullied a lot by his jealous schoolmates. One incident stands out among all others, which was when Mudgett was dragged into the town doctor’s office and forced to confront a skeleton which he had previously found revolting. Despite the bully’s intentions, this cured Mudgett of his fear of skeletons, and made him more curious about the study of the human body and medicine, which piloted the rest of his career. Mudgett studied at the University of Michigan, where he finished college and medical school. Mudgett then moved to Chicago and changed his name to Henry Howard Holmes (H.H. Holmes) in 1886, where his torturous fantasies all began. Although this criminal mastermind only made one small mistake to make investigators red hot on his trail, H.H. Holmes should’ve been caught sooner because of his suspicious activities including the building of his castle and being involved in scams at the same time numerous people he was affiliated with went missing while selling copious amounts of skeletons shortly after they went missing.

West Florida is starkly different from the preconceived images most U.S citizens have of Florida which consist of huge beaches filled with foreign tourist, high-class hotels and exotic cars. Instead, West Florida contains a mixture of southern agrarian roots and small tight knit communities that have become hallmarks of the deep souths perception. One such area which exemplifies the deep southern aspects of west Florida is the Cove, a small inlet which is located near the current location of Panama City, FL and bordered on it North eastern, southern and western portions by the Massalina Bayou and the St. Andrews Bay. The Cove is a beautifully slightly reclusive settlement that fostered a very inclusive tight knit community in Florida since its first settlements in the 18th century. Jeannie Cooper time stakingly interviewed and researched numerous families in the area to accumulate a detailed history of the Cove through the eyes of the generational families who resided in the area. These

“The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is often told with a harsh and unemotional tone; it is this euphemistic style that gives the reader a keen insight into the writer's epoch as a slave in Maryland during the early 1800’s. Douglass never let us forget that his narrative was true, he wanted the readers to understand the truth that was Douglass's life, in addition the symbols and allusions that populate this book showing the intelligence and sophistication of the writer, while the detached writing also gives the reader another look into that time’s attitude and into Douglass’s own perception.

“… we ain’t got nothin’ tuh do but do our work and come home and love.” (Gilyard & Wardi, 309) is how Tea Cake, a character in The Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, described an average day in the Everglades. The small town that they lived in were mostly empty except during the season where they harvest beans in the Everglades. The evenings are described to have been full of laughter and joviality as they gathered together to celebrate a good day’s work. “The house was full of people every night. That is, all around the doorstep was full. Some were there to hear Tea Cake pick the box; some to talk and tell stories …” (Gilyard & Wardi, 309) The South is where African-Americans speak of the positive aspects that the community had on them and how their true happiness came from having average experiences.

   Frederick Douglass was arguably the most prominent African American abolitionist during the mid-19th century. He established his notoriety through his narrative entitled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave published in 1845. Frederick Douglass also produced an African American newspaper, Frederick Douglass' Paper, which highlighted the reception and critiques of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Frederick Douglass praised Uncle Tom's Cabin through not only his writing but in the critiques and letters contained in his newspaper. It is important to look at these reviews to understand Douglass' intentions. However, C.V.S. from the Provincial

Bell witnesses the progression of evil around his own county and the way things have taken a turn for the worse when he says: “This county has not had a unsolved homicide in forty-one years. Now we got nine of em in one week” (216).

The book Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the film Gone with the Wind share an exuberance of similarities whilst using the perspectives of both a slave and his master. They both, in detail, show that slavery was extremely popular and successful in the Southernmost states in the US. It was indeed considered a lifestyle of many in the nation. In the eyes of author Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind was the “Southern response to the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. Mitchell depicts life in the South as a nirvana for highly profitable Caucasian southerners on their plantations where African Americans were more than happy to take a subsidiary role to satisfy their owners. It was an inaccurate portrayal of the time period. On the Other hand, Uncle Tom’s Cabin told the horrifying, but true story of the brutal slavery that took a toll on the South. Although these two works show very different perspectives and tell two totally diverse stories there are many similarities to be shown.