The Main Focal Point Of Erik Larson 's Devil

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

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.

The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, more formally known as the Columbian Exposition, was a fair constructed to celebrate Columbus’ arrival in the New World. Chicago was known as the White City, but did not appear as pure and spotless as its name suggested. For instance, there were many ways one could get killed. “Fire took a dozen lives a day...There was diphtheria, typhus, cholera, influenza. And there was murder.” (Larson 12). These unstoppable causes of death was one of the reasons Chicago’s reputation was tarnished. Furthermore, the Panic of 1893 struck and greatly affected the city of Chicago. The Panic’s effects included “financial crises”, “bankruptcy”, and “high rates of unemployment and homelessness”. (Panic of 1893). Because of the city’s economic depression, the fair would decide whether Chicago’s circumstances would improve or deteriorate. Eventually, the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair displayed what America would soon become in an industrial, military, and economic perspective.

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

Furthermore, Burnham has the passion to succeed in architecture in hopes of building the White City. “He found his calling, he wrote in 1868, and told his parents he wanted to become the ‘greatest architect in the city or country’ ”(Larson 19). Burnham has a dream to be the best, and he uses his passion for a respectable cause. Through his architectural capabilities, creativity, and innovation, he is able to affect millions of people that attend the fair and the ones who do not. As he begins to take his blueprints and put them into reality, he gives hope and inspiration to all Americans during a time of depression. Burnham uses his unique ingenuity to make the unrealistic White City that is unlike anything America has ever seen, and he shows his originality to as many people as possible. As Burnham oversees and creates the new White city, he develops a new,

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.

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

When acknowledging the turnout of Chicago’s fair, Larson uses figurative language to demonstrate the contesting forces of good and evil and to examine the extent to which Chicago stretched the fair’s potential. Larson writes, “Chicago has disappointed her enemies and astonished the world” (30). Larson uses personification when he says that “Chicago has disappointed her enemies…” and is giving Chicago a human behavior. This strategy emits a positive connotation to the reader . The use of figurative language makes the reader look at Chicago as having achieved a great honor by hosting the fair. It also shows that Chicago can create something so miraculous in a time of such hardship and need for ingenuity and amidst the evil waiting within the shadows of the White City. When describing the tension in the top floor of the Rookery while the architects were revealing their drawings for the fair, Larson writes “As the light began to fade, the architects lit the library’s gas jets, which hissed like mildly perturbed cats” (115) and he uses figurative language to help the reader grasp the importance and anticipation of this moment. By comparing the library’s gas jets to “mildly perturbed cats,” the reader gains a sense of agitation, anticipation, and the anxiety that the architects were feeling in that moment. Larson creates a negative and rather comforting connotation by using this simile to describe the room’s tension. The way that Larson describes this moment leads the reader to imagine it to be

Given the nickname the "White City" because of its elegant and pristine buildings, the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 was one of the most powerful events in American history. There were long lasting impacts on American culture, economy, and technology- the fair brought new advancements in virtually every aspect of daily life. It was held “to commemorate Columbus’s discovery of the New World” (Larson 15). The fair was a symbol of the expertise America possessed, but simultaneously highlighted the hardships that surrounded it. The fair increased wages, marketed more products for public use, and produced architectural feats that challenged the ones that stood at the 1889 Exposition Universelle. There was much more to the fair behind the showstopping displays that it created. Behind the exotic Algerian belly dancers and astonishing replicas of famous cities, the corporate world was establishing its dominance. Labor unions struggled to fight for fair wages and working time. Although disturbances and disagreements in the construction of the fair foreshadowed a negative ending, breakthroughs such as white lead paint and the Ferris Wheel attracted many visitors. The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 is a vivid exhibit of the independent cultural, economical, and technological superpower that America would grow to become in the future.

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 motives of a person reflect who they are. In the book, Burnham had a goal to make the Chicago World’s Fair the best it could be. One way he did this was by noticing the need for a clean water supply. He believed “that the fair’s workers and visitors needed a better, safer supply [of water]” (138). This action made the exhibition a greater success and more appealing. Burnham also chose to use Westinghouse electricity to illuminate the White City better than the previous arc lights could. His actions were meant to help the country as a whole. Erik Larson showed how there are people who strive to use their

     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.

The Great Fair of 1893 was held as a major achievement for its time. Huge buildings, impossible feats of engineering, a mixing of cultures, and the use of many new technologies were major aspects of its success. However, even though the builders of the fair worked against impossible odds, they required a leader, a figurehead to lead the way to success. In his book, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Erik Larson’s portrays Burnham’s obsession with grandeur as a key part of his persona to emphasize why he was the right man for the job.

The U.S.A., a superpower of varying converging forces entering the twentieth century, led by the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. In Erik Larson’s book, The Devil in the White City, he illustrates the entire Fair, from start to finish. Before the famous Chicago World’s Fair, there were countless problems the city and the nation faced. There was pollution almost everywhere the eye could see, then the infamous Chicago fire of 1871, and the notorious Civil War. Chicago was a dismal and unfavorable city, that is, until the renowned 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Led by Daniel Burnham, the city saw a colossal change in its environment and people. The three main converging forces that created a blueprint for America to enter the twentieth century was