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.