Devil In The White City Character Analysis

A defining attribute of humanity, is man’s ability to recognize himself. To have a deep understanding of his beliefs and understand his place as an autonomous being in the world. To be able to identify with certain beliefs and perceptions as unique to his point of view. This phenomenon is as ancient as the ancestral drawings on cave walls, and it is understood just as much. Not well at all. This idea of “sense of self” can be defined as a fluid, and ever-changing phenomenon. Some seek to define it as a single quantifiable idea, but many, such as Walker Percy, believe it to be a practice in futility to try and define a sense of self. It could even be argued that Percy considers “sense of self’ indefinable, a contradiction of sorts, both dynamic …show more content…
By the environment and the occurrences within it. No one self is more valid than the others and no one self holds a positive or negative connotation. So in the novel “Devil in the White City” By Erik Larson, when character H. H. Homles is considered, as a serial killer, his sense of self is similarly reflective of his surroundings. Holmes is an example of a character possessing two selves at once. As one of the most prolific serial killers in American history and the very first, Holmes made a career of his killings. He was active from the building of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, to his hanging in 1896. From a very young age, Holmes was lost in himself and his actions. It was noted that decapitated and dismembered animals would be found by where he played as a child in the back yard and a specific incident notes that when older boys tried to antagonize him, he would not mind the bother, continuing on in his fascinations (Larson, 35-40). This is an early expression of “the scientific and artistic self”. Although the dismemberment of small animals and cruel murders is not scientific nor artistic, this sense of self as defined by Percy states “That self which is so totally absorbed in the pursuit of art or science as to be selfless…he is absent from the usual concerns of the self about itself in the world” (Percy, 16). The science and art to Holmes, is represented by his killings and the creative way in which he planned them. In the novel it is gleaned that Holmes creates a floor plan and an architectural plan for a block long house of “factory” he called it, in which he conducted most of his killings. It was termed the “murder castle”. Among the many ways he killed his victims were torture methods so inventive that they had never been seen before. An officer noted “The man was something more than a mere criminal who acted on impulse…He was a man who