The Devil In The White City Character Analysis

In The Devil in the White City, two main characters with different stories were put together in a strange, yet interesting way. There was H.H. Holmes who was a doctor, a pharmacist, and serial killer, and Daniel Burnham who was an architect. Erik Larson chose to put these two characters and their two stories together in one book to show industrialization, urbanization, and modernity. During the twentieth century, America was finding itself a way out of a lot of hard times, especially in Chicago. Chicago was a rough place to be in. The city was filthy and the people that lived in this city were just as filthy with no jobs, no hope of a better life, but as time moved on, things got better for the good due to Burnham. The great depression was

There were definitely good and bad moments from both sides of the character’s stories. Burnham never really got over the fact that he could not pursue or get accepted into neither of the colleges of his choice, but instead, he still came out on top with his architectural skills. Holmes, on the other hand, was a complete psychopath, yet very clever for a moment throughout the book. Holmes knew for a fact that he was indeed a murderer by saying, “'I was born with the devil in me,'" he wrote. "I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing” (Larson, 109). Although he had his own business working as a pharmacist, he reconstructed his pharmacy into a hotel that had gas chambers and secret departments within his building that would help him hide his victims more easily that he had killed. He had got away with a lot of things such as murder, theft, and insurance fraud, but that soon came to an end as he got caught by the police with insurance

In Chicago at this time, industrialization was a big deal. Technology was beginning to blossom to a whole new level in a lot of aspects such as buildings that were destined to employ people with a stable job. In the book, Burnham built Chicago’s World Fair, which became the World’s Columbian Exposition. This fair was an eye opener to many Americans because it gave them hope and opportunities for jobs that were soon to be filled. "The White City had drawn men and protected them; the Black City now welcomed them back, on the eve of winter, with filth, starvation, and violence” (Larson, 323), with this, Larson connected that although the fair had employed many people with jobs, it was soon coming to an end which resulted in people being unemployed and causing them to go through a great