Devil in the White City Blog 2

The Fair, as described by Larson, was debated for in a great battle between Chicago and New York, both places wanting to host the fair. The entire fairs over zealous size and huge cost can be said to be an exhibition of arrogance stemming its roots beyond just the battle of where to host the fair. The entire time Burnham is constructing the fair behind every building and structure the goal was to be bigger and more extravagant than that of the Paris exhibition fair of 1885. By creating the fair out of a general want to outshine Europe and its extravagant show of pride one can only wonder if this stands as the reason that evil and madness were drawn to the fair. The fair itself, because it was created out of a general want to be superior to the fair Paris held previously, is clearly a parallel to what its true intention was to be due to the fact that it was created out of feelings of inferiority and the desire to achieve architectural greatness higher than that was achieved at the Paris exhibition. Due to this fact I believe that such creative acts automatically engender a darker, destructive parallel.
The belief that the fair was to show that Chicago was not just the “windy city”, nicknamed the Windy City not for the wind but for the politicians and city boosters who were full of "hot air”, but a city that could hold something as unique and extreme as a world’s fair can attribute to the fact that the fair was seen as an act of arrogance and almost a show of the greatest elements to Chicago, its’ engineers and architects. The fair itself, with its monumental sized buildings and structures is a symbol of the American want to out do its predecessors as is a recurring theme within U.S. history either regarding foreign affairs or even outdoing ourselves in matters of education, science or architecture. The fair is not the first sign of America’s want to stiff the competition; other examples include having skyscrapers bigger than any others seen before, the Olympics and our strong need for competition of a U.S. team, etc. The fair may not be the first example of this self competition between the states within America but it does contain all of the elements precedent in this need to be better than everyone and everything else.
Can anything born from arrogance and the desire to beat the competition really result in anything less than destructive? The fair not only holds exhibits of massive proportions and design but one of the archetypical serial killers of the time. But one may wonder if the fair is a breeding ground for the type of crime Holmes commits being that so much death, either from construction, disease or otherwise has been born from this place of majesty? Holmes himself says the devil was born with him and that he could not help his need to kill more than a poet can not help but sing, there is no doubt that the fair, with its grand exhibits and millions of visitors is a perfect habitat for the kind of destruction Holmes inquires.

Evils Imminent; Devil in the White City Blog 1

Throughout the novel The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson, the constant display of good and evil is portrayed through the characters Daniel Burnham and Henry H. Holmes. The Devil in the White City relies on this ancient story of good versus evil to show how there are people in this world who seek to build and others who seek to destroy. The two men represent the sides of the archetypical battle, Holmes representing evil and Burnham representing good. Burnham is an archetype for the hero in this battle, envisioning the man who seeks to build structure and shelter to business men and fellow citizens. Holmes, however, is meticulous and strives only to build a better life for himself through the lives of others. The book itself, within its context that is, reveals that when there is light, there is darkness when saying that for every white city there is a black one to accompany it. The title of the book itself can be seen as a metaphor for the darkness leering in a event that was supposed to bring people together instead of tear them apart. Although the two men are very different, they are also eerily similar and as the book evaluates on the two characters their similarities begin to grow in number.
Burnham was a man of action, taking pride and sacrificing for every detail in his architectural works. This determination and obsession is what creates similarity between him and Holmes. Both have the same lust for perfection and the same attention to detail in their scheming. When the concepts of murder and architecture are taken out of the description of these two men the reader is left with a sense that these two men are not so different in their feelings when going about their individual goals. Holmes kills out of self pleasure, he is tedious when going about his work and has a professional air to all of his strategies. The same applies for Burnham who, rather, built for the pleasure of the people and to see society grow. Burnham was also meticulous in his design plans and saw no room for flaws or errors in the construction of the grand fair. When Holmes builds his house with all the necessities of a psychopath, including a sound proof vault and a furnace used to kill and then dispose of his victims, he is very precise in achieving the perfect furnace so the smell of flesh cannot be detected and makes sure that his vault is sound proof so his victims cannot be heard. Burnham uses this same determination and precision in his field of work, wanting complete power and acceptance from the board of directors of the fair; he even mentions that he wants to get them “on board”. Although two completely different in their end goals their attributes to their work are fairly the same, both men, are obsessed with their work, use precision to perfect every detail and do their own acts out of the want to satisfy, be it himself or all of societies’ well being.