Book Report On The Devil In The White City

The book The Devil In The White City features a lot of interesting events, including the rejuvenation of the city of Chicago, so it may hold the Chicago World’s Fair, but also takes into deeper account the personalities of some characters. However this book also holds historical records of the person that created the serial killer archetype, which is said to be an important factor in shaping modern society. In this book Holmes, represents the Serial archetype; however, in order to be successful he pretended to be the official hero, and this pattern holds up in the modern content.

“The fair was so perfect, its grace and beauty like an assurance that for as long as it lasted nothing truly bad could happen to anyone, anywhere.” page

“You saved him!” “You saved him!” the crowd shouted. A book written by Dave Barry called, The Worst Class Trip Ever which is about an eighth grader on a class trip to Washington D.C. The book has many characters with very different personalities. The book has unexpected twists and turns throughout it. The novel involves kidnappers, a dragon and (of course) the 5 children from Miami that know nothing about what they’re getting into.

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.

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would and do think it is a good read. I think this book gave a really unique take on the Chicago World’s fair. It was cool to see the contrast between Burnham’s parts and Holmes’. Larson also showed all of the decisions leading up to the fair and not just how it was after. There was a lot of behind the scenes included. Larson also chose to include some backstory of Holmes and his life after being caught for some of his crimes and not just how he chose to kill his victims. Larson really tells the full, and true story of the Chicago world’s fair surrounding Burnham and Holmes. The most impressive part was the incredible detail that Larson included, while keeping the story nonfiction, and historically accurate. I was able to learn about the huge amount of planning for the Chicago World’s fair and what it was like for the average visitor. I also got to learn about the serial killer H. H. Holmes, and how different crime was treated back then. Overall The Devil in the White City is the accurate story of the Chicago World’s fair that I learned a lot of information from, and would

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”. Baker went to Bate college as an undergraduate where he got introduces to his first history class about Northern New England by James Leamon. James is a mentor at Bate College and now is friends with Baker. He is a historian and archaeologists that teaches history at Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts. The reason why Baker wrote this book was because he think that the past should be accessible to the public. Baker

The Devil in the White City portrays the building of the Chicago World’s Fair. This should have been a time of wonder and awe for the people of Chicago and the visitors to the city. People were coming from all across the United States and others were planning on going to Chicago because “firsthand accounts of the fair were sparking heightened interest” (Larson 274). Besides worries about the completion of the fair and the fear of the economic crisis of the United States (Larson 241), people were still coming to the fair and it seemed as though everyone was having a positive experience in Chicago (Larson 247). However, with the sudden influx of people and the incompetence of police and detectives, disappearances were

The novel starts out by talking about how Chicago wins the bid for the 1893 World’s Exposition. Burnham and his friend/partner are given the opportunity to be the architects for the fair. While building the fair, Burnham faces obstacles, like deaths and injuries while constructing the site.

In the book the author tone switches from both casual and intense, as show through the two main characters, Burnham and Holmes Daniel Burnham was the architect who got a contract to build the Chicago World’s Fair with John Root in 1893, however John Root dies before the contraction even starts. The author describes the Devil in the White city as how wherever there is good, there is also evil. The purpose of the Chicago world Fair being built was to show the world the greatness of America. During the 1980s the United States was not in a good position, economical wise.

Alone, he was able to find all the information needed to get his readers informed about a big part of our U.S history, while still making it interesting through murder. I have learned many things about the Chicago’s World Fair and how important and inspirational it was to the citizens of the U.S. One thing we still see today was the Ferris wheel, which was first made during the World’s Fair, and was there to surpass the complexity of the Eiffel Tower, and distinguish Chicago’s Fair to Paris’s Fair. You see that many innovations were made to make this Fair a success. People from all across the World came to see the successfulness of it. I personally never knew of this Exposition so I found it even more intriguing to think that this had actually happened. Even with the success of the Fair, we still see the many hardships that in the modern world we would never think could happen, such as the amount of deaths, the tension, and how people reacted to this events. It seems so fictional, but is all historically accurate. I also saw that Larson’s storyline went to even more depth than I would have imagined, each individually named person in this story was connected to either character, and had a distinguished role in their lives. With this book I also learned more about the time period, and how dangerous it used to be. In the book, you see the bad side of Chicago and how it affects

The White City article, talked about the recreational area located in Chicago that was organized to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus landfall, which had a defining moment in history due to the landscaping and architecture that were built during this creational process, which is also called “the World’s Columbian Exposition”. The World’s Columbian Exposition was an after math impact of the many political and economic leaders in America that wanted to reinvent and create the destruction of the civil war. America wanted to reinvent and reconstruct the country that was also characterized by the massive industrial growth, and the mass immigration the country had. America turned to the medium of the world fair to repair their fragmented societies. The first fair was created in London, to counter the spread of political radicalism and tout global expansion, and was a huge success of reconstruction. The success of that inspired America to follow in their footsteps and created their own fair. After the first fair held in 1876 in Philadelphia that left the city with no money, and basically a failed which

Chicago the up and coming western city for the time is thriving unlike most other western cities. The allure of better quality life where people flock to experience the big city’s sophisticated and party filled life contrary to most people’s dull rural life. Where the morality of life is questionable for the time not only amongst the citizens but also the politicians. The fast lifestyle most citizens live and the numerous amount of nightclubs and brothels within the city’s bounds. Where sickness, crime, and murder seem to have found a commonplace. What better place to set up shop and start murdering people! Our antagonist H.H. Holmes seemed to have developed a similar idea for the city of Chicago. Holmes displays his serial killer archetype by using the ruse of the lover archetype to manipulate unsuspecting women in order to propel himself into the limelight and portray himself as a success story (Schmidt Chapter 2). Of course this comes with a few bumps in the road and a few casualties but who cares about that am I right?

Burnham’s job was not only to establish the most beautiful fair in world history, but he needed to establish a good name for America and its architects, which had been crushed by Champ de Mars, hosted in Paris, France in 1889. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “We shall be ranked among those nations who have shown themselves careless of appearances,” (Larson 15). This quote from the newspaper explains that America doesn’t care how we make ourself look or how we look to outsiders. Not only did the mean face global humiliation, but they faced horrible landscape problems, unpredictable weather, bank crashes and labor union strikes. Building this dreamland did not come easy, but it did turn out beautiful.

“Being a hero doesn’t mean you’re invincible. It just means that you’re brave enough to stand up and do what’s needed.” - Rick Riordan, The Mark of Anthena. Watchmen is a graphic novel which does not have a clear protagonist or antagonist, since each one of this character has some sort of scar that tells a story about them. In every book, movie or novel, there is always a character that you are most attracted to or find a similitude within. I believe that in this graphic novel the important character is Rorschach, also known as Walter J. Kovacs. He is very different from the other characters by the way he perceives the world, the choices he makes, and how he affects the story.

The poet describes a person who has eight different personalities, five are harmless while the others are toxic. Guerin establishes that good and evil are one, not two separate entities that are the driving forces behind a personality, but he is also warning the reader to be careful trusting people for “you won’t know who’s who” (Guerin 11). Revealing this important message, also relates to readers of The Devil in the White City because Holmes “could feel that he was a God in disguise,” due to the fact he could easily trick people into trusting him while he planned their murder (Larson 388).