Midst Of The World's Fair Rhetorical Analysis Essay

This passage occurs as more and more people begin to disappear from Holmes’s hotel in the midst of the World’s Fair including waitresses, stenographers, and even a male physician. Larson's purpose in this passage is to depict Holmes's insanity and psychopathic tendencies as he murders several guests at his hotel. Employing a vivid sense of diction, Larson details Holmes’s methods of murder; he uses words such as “gorging,” “proximity,” “death,” and “panic,” to characterize Holmes’s preferences, including the fact that he avoids bloody murder (like the notorious Jack the Ripper) and enjoys being near his victims while they are on the brink of death. When he murders, Holmes feels a sense of, “possession,” over his victim and believes it is “satisfying.” The vault in which Holmes murdered most of his victims “deadened,” most of the sound- but not all, and when his hotel was full of guests Holmes would, “settle,” for more silent means, explains

Furthermore, Holmes did not keep the bodies of his victims like many other murderers, he found no gratification from it. What Holmes yearned for and felt pleasure from was feeling a sense of possession over his victims as they begged for mercy, and unfortunately once they died that feeling quickly dissipated. As a result, Holmes’s desire for power and control could never be fully satisfied and because of this he feels the need to kill again and again. After reading this passage I felt repulsed at the fact that Holmes murdered solely to gain pleasure from the sense of power and possession he felt. It is disgusting to envision Holmes standing there, with a menacing look on his face, enjoying the control he exerts over his victims as they die, slow, painful deaths. By this point it is clear that Holmes is an extremely dangerous, sick individual that has no intention of stopping the gruesome criminal acts he’s