Chicago World Fair

The Chicago World Fair stirred many emotions in this great time of industrialization, but not only was Chicago shining in the spotlight from the fair, it was also promoting something much more sinister, this dark enclosing spotlight shined directly on H.H Holmes. Burnham the leader of the World Fair and H. H Holmes the notorious serial killer, are the two main characters in this novel that Erik Larson uses the balance between light and dark between these two’s personalities. In the novel The Devil in the White City Erik Larson uses Imagery, paradox, and alliteration to show the balance between the light and dark in the ever growing city of Chicago. Imagery paints an ever expanding picture for the audience, the detailed descriptions such as “but his eyes are as blue as ever, bluer at this instant by proximity to the sea" (Larson 3).

Chicago had to fight for their right to host the fair as it was competing with many, already great, cities for that spot. Fighting for this right lead the city politics to become corrupt since they were doing everything in their power to gain the opportunity to hold the fair in their city. Introduction: In 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition

In the book, “In Cold Blood,” Truman Capote takes us through the lives of the murderers and the murdered in the 1959 Clutter family homicide, which transpires in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas. The first chapter, “The Last to See Them Alive,” vividly illustrates the daily activities of the Clutter family—Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon—and the scheming plot of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith up to point where the family is found tied up, and brutally murdered. In doing so, he depicts the picture-perfect town of Holcomb with “blue skies and desert clear air”(3) whose safety is threatened when “four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives”(5). Through the eyes of a picture perfect family and criminals with social aspirations, Capote describes the American Dream and introduces his audience to the idea that this ideal was no more than an illusion. Herbert Clutter: the character Capote describes as the epitome of the American Dream.

Arc of Justice: Racial Tensions and the Social Politics of 1920s Detroit In Arc of Justice, A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, Kevin Boyle chronicles racism in 1920s Detroit through the lens of Dr. Ossian Sweet. The book starts off by detailing the events leading up to the famous trial that serves as the book’s focus, and then transitions into Sweet’s family and personal history; the book then returns to the trial and details its progression. Boyle makes use of a staggering variety of sources to provide an extremely in-depth account of the events, and does an excellent job collating a large number of sources into a single coherent account of the Sweet trial. But while his account of the trial, and the provided context

Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy are all infamous American serial killers, but none of these serial killers legacy comes close to H. H. Holmes’s legacy. H. H. Holmes was America’s first documented serial killer who was activated during the Gilded Age. However, not many people know much about H. H. Holmes and how he changed America’s Culture of the Gilded Age. Holmes embodied the dark side of the late 1980s in America, which most Americans wanted to hide. When told about the I-search assignment, Holmes’ legacy and impact he had on America’s culture were one of the first ideas I had.

Not only does the “terrible burden of destiny” (32) present as a standalone phrase with linguistic manipulation, but the phrase also contributes to Sandburg’s theme in which the worst and best of situations peacefully coexist. Surrounding the “terrible burden of destiny” is a “young man… Bragging and laughing” (32-36), a city with a “pulse” (36), and “the heart of the people” (37). Intertwining the vivid language of life with a dark “burden” exemplifies that the darkness of the city exists within the lightness of the city. Illustrating an animated city despite the “painted women” (7) and “gunm[e]n” (10) Sandburg shows the city “building, breaking, [and] rebuilding” (29) displaying action coinciding with destruction by necessity. Sandburg shows that growth comes as a result of death through the “rebuilding” of Chicago shortly after “breaking.”

The Chicago World’s Fair was an opportunity for the city to come together and create event so spectacular to shock the world. However, as Chicago prepared to awe people with this extravagant fair the city faced skepticism on weather or not issues of urbanization, sanitation, and crime would be fixed in time for the World’s Fair. In beginning of the novel, Larson takes the reader back to the start before Chicago wins the bid for the World’s fair to be held in Chicago. The idea of the World’s Fair in the United

The Devil in the White City Rhetorical Analysis Essay The Chicago World’s Fair, one of America’s most compelling historical events, spurred an era of innovative discoveries and life-changing inventions. The fair brought forward a bright and hopeful future for America; however, there is just as much darkness as there is light and wonder. In the non-fiction novel, The Devil in the White City, architect Daniel Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes are the perfect representation of the light and dark displayed in Chicago. Erik Larson uses positive and negative tone, juxtaposition, and imagery to express that despite the brightness and newfound wonder brought on by the fair, darkness lurks around the city in the form of murder, which at first, went unnoticed.

The Devil in the White City The Devil in the White City is a historical non-fiction book written by Erik Larson that reads like a novel. The book follows two, real main characters, during the building and existence of the Chicago World’s fair. The first is an American architect named Daniel Burnham.

Holmes, the mysterious serial killer. Burnham and Holmes have many similarities, the biggest one being their sheer determination to reach a goal or get what they want, which is used towards the manufacture of good, or the manufacture of sorrow. However their differences separate them apart, their biggest difference being their actions, as one build the World’s Fair and does this for the wellbeing of everyone, while Holmes uses his talent to kill many people, and cause commotion in Chicago and such. In conclusion, Erik Larson tries to show the underlying difference between good and evil, and how no matter what, evil is accompanied by good, and vice versa. Even the title of the book “The Devil in the White City” shows the most prominent theme of this amazing novel, by Erik

In the nonfiction novel, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” American author, John Berendt, gives his account of a 1981 murder case that took place in Savannah, Georgia. Even though during the 1980s, United States as a whole is heading towards prosperity as the Cold War ends in 1981, he repeatedly touches back on the undercurrent southern racism. Berendt draws a vivid picture of Southern Gothic weirdness to convey, using real life occurrences and characters, the idea of what kind of people exist in the community to readers of all places. The writer uses rhetorical devices such as description, foreshadowing, and dysphemism to successfully depict the occurrences in suspenseful yet humorous tone.

The Devil in the White City gives a unique glimpse into how there is both bad and good existing in the city. In my opinion the point of the book was to show how both good and bad coexist in one place. Sometimes with the knowledge of the other existing. The book was written by Erik Larson and published by first vintage books. Published almost 14 years ago the book is still relevant today and still has much to teach us.

The most influential people in Chicago during the time of Holmes’ killings were worried about one thing: The World’s Columbian Exchange. Men like Daniel Burnham were working thousands of men, day and night, in order to finish the Fair on time. This too was killing innocent men. Most people in Chicago were preoccupied with their own lives, they rarely noticed when people went missing. The selfishness in Chicago and the fear of ruining Chicago’s reputation, enabled Holmes to get away with

The use of diction and syntax in this section creates an irritating atmosphere to stress the annoyance of the Columbian Guards. Larson’s evocative word choice for “disease” emphasizes the visitors' contagious curiosity as if they were part of a newspaper press. This displays to the readers as a stressful event for the Columbian Guards as they’re continuously “hammered with questions.” Furthermore, syntax was used in “the fair was so big, so beyond grasp” to create a fragmented and tiring effect for the readers due to the unimaginable pool of people inside of the fair. The fragmented phrases were embedded again in “it was a disease, a rhetorical smallpox” to convey the Columbian Guards harsh depiction of the visitors' nuisances.

This first sentence in the passage immediately makes the reader wonder about the setting and what’s going on. In other words, the author W.W. Jacobs grabs the reader’s attention by making the readers think and be curious about