The Devil In The White City Analysis

Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City is a contribution to the remembrance of the historical significance the world’s fair had on cities and the overall American way of life. Lasting only 6 months, the fair had an impressive impact on the entire world. Placing itself in direct competition with France, who had hosted the fair a few years earlier, Chicago had America’s reputation in its hands. Larson’s novel follows the short-lived exposition highlighting not only how it came to life, but what was occurring on the outside of the white city. Throughout the novel, Larson uses powerful imagery and tone to create the perception of Chicago the entire world shared. Chicago was a city that lacked sanitation and was overcome by filth, a city in no way fit to host an exposition. Using parallel structure, Larson states that “there was diphtheria, typhus, cholera, [and] influenza”, reiterating the fact that Chicago was a dark city full of unhealthy, harmful conditions (pg.12). His apathetic tone portrays the setting of Chicago to be normal to those living in the city; it was normal on the west side of the …show more content…
A major theme in Devil in the White City was the difference between the White City and the Black. The fair was merely a temporary cover-up of the reality of Chicago; it put a brief mask over the poverty and violence happening on the outside. Using irony to his advantage, Larson writes that the architects decide to “make it [the fair] all perfectly white”(pg. 255). White is a symbol of purity and innocence, something Chicago has always longed to obtain. Creating a city composed entirely of white buildings, the exposition is clearly an escape for the people of Chicago. During construction, Burnham made it a priority to ensure visitors would have “clean public bathrooms [and] pure water”, things that were so uncommon in the Black City but were abundant in the White City (pg.