Erik Larson studied Russian history, language and culture at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated. He also got his masters in journalism from Columbia University. He has worked or wrote for Bucks County Courier Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, Harper’s and The New Yorker. The events of The Devil in The White City take place during 1893 at the Worlds Colombian Exposition in Chicago. I feel this is a good book and I will probably go back and re read it just to get a better feel for it, I just wish I didn’t wait till the last minute to start reading. I feel like Erik Larson wrote two books and tied them into one, yes they can be considered related due to being during the same time period and taking place in the same place but they never merge into one story. …show more content…
John Root dies before construction can even begin so Burnham is left to build it on his own. Burnham recruits the help of some of the nation’s best architect to help design and build the buildings. Burnham and Root where in charge of the construction for The World Fair because they had experience in building large and first ever buildings. He and Root built the first ever skyscraper called the Montauk in 1881 also located in Chicago. They were also responsible for the biggest private building in America which an auditorium that was owned by Ferdinard W. Peck. Herman Webster Mudgett would later change his name to Dr. Henry H. Holmes. Holmes who was also a pharmacist works out of his own pharmacy. He later builds The World’s Fair Hotel from hell which is a front to feed his sick appetite across the street from his pharmacy and down the street from Chicago’s World Fair. He hires on multiple work crews to build his hotel so that no one could find out what his real intentions
Throughout the course of his The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson describes Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair through the eyes of two different main characters: Herman Webster Mudgett—a psychopathic serial killer who builds his famous “death castle” on the outskirts of the fairgrounds, and Daniel Burnham—the director of works for the World’s Columbian Exposition. Larson employs the use of many contrasting themes within his writing including success and failure, but perhaps most importantly, murder and beauty. In order to emphasize said themes, Larson juxtaposes the accounts of his two main characters: Mudgett and Burnham. There is no doubt that the manner in which Larson portrays Mudgett is sketchy at best. Rather than introducing him with a concise description, Larson familiarizes the reader with Mudgett over the course of several chapters.
When did people start getting accused of being witches and wizards from their neighbors, family members, or friends? Why would someone accuse others of being witches? All the questions are asked and examined by Emerson Baker. The author of The Devil in Great Island is Emerson W. Baker. Although, he goes by his nickname “Tad”.
This competition also affected the future of American construction and the weak environment that was in Chicago slowed the process of construction. This situation was difficult because “… Burnham and Root were being called upon to build what amounted to an entire city in the same amount of time- not just any city, but one that would surpass the brilliance of the Paris exposition.” (44). The depiction of the strain and stress set forth by the success of Paris is reiterated to the reader each time the Paris Exposition Universelle is described in such an adored
The nonfiction novel, The Devil in the White City, focuses on two significant figures, architect Daniel Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes. Erik Larson uses juxtaposition, imagery, and figurative language in order to portray the distinct differences between Burnham’s and Holmes’s worlds,
Erik Larson, the author of The Devil in the White City writes, “Beneath the gore and smoke and loom, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging in the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow.” Larson’s statement reasons to compare and contrast the two main characters, Daniel Burnham and Henry H. Holmes through the different structures and word choices of their chapters. Burnham was the famous architect that built the World’s Fair in Chicago in a time span of less than two years, while Holmes was the first American serial killer who lured victims into his life. Larson refers the “White City” to the “Black City” in correspondence to good versus evil. Burnham represents
The book, The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, is based on the true story of the Yuma-14 or Wellstone 26, who were Mexicans that crossed the American border and died while doing so. This novel goes through not only the story of the Yuma-14 but the background of what happened before their journey and after their deaths, as well as the mentalities of the Border Patrol agents. It gives you the complete picture of what had happened. The Devil’s Highway starts off with a brief background about what happened.
Book Analysis- The Devil in the White City The Chicago World’s Fair continues to be one of America’s defining moments. This is where America proved to the world they had grown up and were able to hold their own. Erik Larson eloquently illustrates the entire fair in little black words on paper. Although he was not alive during this event, Larson is able to reconstruct the story with factual events; he created twists to keep you ensnared into the story.
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).
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a nonfiction novel that takes is based around true events surrounding the building of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, a monumental event that holds great prestige, not unlike hosting the Olympics or Super Bowl today. The creation of the Chicago World’s Fair was designed to celebrate the discovery of america by Columbus, as well as to show the world that Chicago had recovered from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed most of the city. This bid to host the World’s Fair in America followed the great success of the 1889 French Exposition in Paris, where the Eiffel Tower, built to be a temporary landmark, stood as a monument to French beauty and sophistication. In this non-linear novel
In Erik Larson’s novel The Devil in the White City takes place during the Gilded Age. During this period of time everything appears good and golden on the outside when in reality everything was full of corruption. In the novel, the author takes the reader to the city of Chicago, where the city is “swelled “in population causing the city to expand in all “available directions” (Larson 44). As Chicago became the “second most populous [city] in the nation after New York” there was an urge that city show off to the world and the nation of how great it was through the Chicago World’s Fair (Larson 44).
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
There were a few chosen spots like Jackson Park yet none were officially chosen. Eventually a spot for the fair was chosen and construction to then begin. What was happening to Holmes was he was courting his second wife without telling his second wife about the first wife. After a while the second wife moved in with her parents leaving Holmes by himself. Holmes then decided to build a hotel of sorts across the street from his pharmacy which happened to be right near where the fair was eventually going to be held.
Madie Levine AP Lang 10-5-15 Devil in the White City Throughout Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City, the juxtaposition of dark and light exemplifies itself literally through the obvious physical dynamics of the plot as well as figuratively through the motives, personas, and circumstances of the contrasting central characters- Daniel H. Burnham, the renowned and capable chief architect and and Dr. H.H. Holmes, the manipulating urban serial killer. Larson depicts perfectly the intertwining of both the “black” and “white” moods of Chicago during the World’s Fair- telling the stories of the two men who possess distinctly differently focused fates but are indefinitely linked by the common phenomenon of the ground-breaking fair. While Burnham