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Analysis Of Devil In The White City By Erik Larson

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Living a dream gives a person the feeling that life it too good to be true. It’s bliss for a while, then things go right back to where they were before anything had happened. The Chicago World’s Fair gave people feeling of being in a dream because of it’s aesthetic, the wonderful inventions that came with it, and the freedom many people got to experience. Devil In The White City by Erik Larson describes how the people of America, and other visitors, were living in heaven for six months before the World’s Fair closed in the fall of 1893. In the book, Larson also reveals the negative aspects of the fair and how it was damaging to the country in some ways. Above all, the thing that effected people the most at the World’s Fair was the buildings and great architectural work that went on. The lights alone had a huge effect on people. One person recalled, ““As the light was fading in the sky, millions of lights were suddenly flashed on, all at one time... Having seen nothing but kerosene lamps for illumination, this was like getting a sudden vision of Heaven”” (254). The allusion to heaven while still being alive creates a dreamlike mindset for people. It’s something new and mind-blowing. Something no one has ever seen before. The way nature worked with the buildings also impacted visitors. Larson wrote that, “The shared …show more content…

“In the first six months of 1892 the city experienced nearly eight hundred violent deaths”(12). Catastrophes happened even before the fair technically started, but the with a huge flow of people to help build the fair came a huge amount of crime. In a short time frame, “[in] August alone the building took three lives. Elsewhere on the grounds four other men died and dozens more suffered all manner of fractures, burns, and lacerations”(178). Many people lost their lives. Families lost loved ones. To finish a project so quickly, it ended up being a dreadful time for numerous people on the

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