Erik Larson Character Analysis Essay
Author Preface: Erik Larson was born in Brooklyn, and he grew up in Freeport, Long Island, New York. When he was young, still in high school he wanted to be a New York Cartoonist. He studied Russian history of the University Of Pennsylvania and graduated with highest praise in 1976. Then after a year off he attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, graduating 1978. His first job was in New York as an editorial assistant for a publisher. He enjoyed the work there and two editors fought had over him, as stated in his biography. Later he was inspired to go into Journalism after seeing the movie All the president's men (Larson, Alternative). His first journalism job was for the Bucks County Courier Times in Levittown, Pa.
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This job started his career, after this he had sent out his resume to newspapers all over and got hired by the Wall Street Journal. Later on, Larson got married and moved to Baltimore and wrote some unpublished novels. He now lives in Seattle with his wife and three daughters. Larson, has written five books, mostly historical nonfiction. Larson has also taught nonfiction writing at San Francisco University, the John Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon. He has also has spoken to audiences all across the United States. He continues to contribute to Time Magazine, his magazine stories have appeared in multiple different magazines. (Wikipedia)
Devil in The White City describes how wherever there is good there is evil. It is written in the time of the Chicago World Fair, which was being built for good reasons, for example to show the world the greatness of America. However, in this novel Larson portrays how appearance and reality differ from each other. Henry Holmes is the main character who is better known as H.H is a murder disguised as a doctor, his appearance allows him to lure women and other people to him. H.H is not just a murder, he enjoys torturing people and watching them suffer which makes him not just a murderer but a real, living devil. Before moving to Chicago, when Holmes was not yet a devil he was an outcast as a child which lead up to him becoming the devil. For example, there was a haunting encounter with the doctor’s office, “Some kids brought him to a doctor's office and forced him to come face to face with a skeleton” (39) and the accidental death of his childhood friend in which he was present during that event. Furthermore, in the novel this quote explains H.H as a child, "he drifted through childhood as a small, odd, and exceptionally bright boy....in the cruel imaginations of his peers, he became prey" (38). This explains how Holmes was very different from his peers, and nobody could really explain it. However, he was unusually bright for his age which means he was more aware of the reality in the world in comparison to his friends. When H.H moved to Chicago in August of 1886, he enters E.S Holton Drugs and convinces the store owner Mrs. Holton to hire him. As a pharmacist, Holmes had gotten a lot of attention from women because he was an attractive younger man. In the novel, Holmes is explained as, "He walked with confidence and dressed well, conjuring an impression of wealth and achievement. He was twenty six years old. His height was five feet, eight inches; he weighed only 155 pounds. He had dark hair and striking blue eyes, once likened to the eyes of a Mesmerist" (35). Because of Holmes appearance he was able to lure women into falling for him, which means he could kill them. He married Myrta Belkap, he later on has a daughter named Lucy with her. Myrta gets jealous with then multiple women that Holmes sees at the drugstore, which strains their relationship. Holmes later on buys a hotel, and has people stay there and in his marriage he lures other women and becomes interested with them. The fact that he lures women and flirts with them throughout the novel, shows that H.H not only enjoys the murder he enjoys the slower process of watching them be torchered by someone whom they thought was a completely different person. This shows that Holmes is a real living devil, not only a murderer.
After he loses interest in the women he kills them, at this point there has been multiple disappearances in Chicago, however nobody has connected them to H.H because he is an upstanding citizen in their eyes. In the novel Larson uses a rhetorical question to invoke the readers, “Why had Holmes gone to the trouble and expense of moving the children from city to city, hotel to hotel, if only to kill them? Why he had bought each of them a crystal pen and taken them to the zoo and made sure they received lemon pie and ice cream? (348) He uses this to get the readers to view as the people who knew H.H, or who they thought he was. To show his readers how Holmes was capable of appearing as the perfect citizen, and be able to commit the crimes that he did. In this novel, Larson explains that evil is everywhere in the world. The Chicago Fair takes place at the happiest time in the world however, during this there was a murderer on the loose and nobody noticed. He is saying that there was multiple signs throughout the story that could have lead people to Holmes the killer, but they chose to look past the weird things about Holmes because of his standing in the community. Larson uses an example of irony about the so called great fair, “The fair was so perfect, its grace and beauty like an assurance that for as long as it lasted nothing truly bad could happen to anyone, anywhere” (289). This quote is ironic, everyone is experiencing the beauty in the Fair, but they cannot see the multiple disappearances of the women. Larson’s whole point is this, it is ironic that people can experiences happy things, but they cannot take into account that malicious things happen at the same time. Throughout the novel, there are many examples of appearance v.s reality.
Holmes did exceptionally well with getting the admiration of women, his mysteriously blue eyes lured them in. Larson goes into deeper explanation about Holmes’s character, “He broke prevailing rules of casual intimacy: He stood too close, stared too hard, touched too much and long. And women adored him for it” (36). This shows that Holmes did things differently, not many bothered though because he was attractive and the women seemed to relish him. This allowed H.H’s murders to be left as a secret, his appearance of a doctor allowed him to be considered above everyone else, and he also owned a hotel. However, people couldn't hear his thoughts Larson explains Holmes’s uncontrollable urge, “It was the details of the building that gave him the most pleasure… There would be a large basement with hidden chambers and a subbasement for the permanent storage of sensitive material… He could hardly imagine the pleasure that would fill his days when the building was finished and flesh-and-blood women moved among its features. As always, the thought aroused him” (67). The way Holmes thinks makes him not only a murderer, his state of reverie is a women's flesh and blood and the way it moves. His peers were not able to see the side of him, he was able to hide it very well under all of his beauty and wealth he would be the most unsuspecting murder in this white
city.
This job started his career, after this he had sent out his resume to newspapers all over and got hired by the Wall Street Journal. Later on, Larson got married and moved to Baltimore and wrote some unpublished novels. He now lives in Seattle with his wife and three daughters. Larson, has written five books, mostly historical nonfiction. Larson has also taught nonfiction writing at San Francisco University, the John Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon. He has also has spoken to audiences all across the United States. He continues to contribute to Time Magazine, his magazine stories have appeared in multiple different magazines. (Wikipedia)
Devil in The White City describes how wherever there is good there is evil. It is written in the time of the Chicago World Fair, which was being built for good reasons, for example to show the world the greatness of America. However, in this novel Larson portrays how appearance and reality differ from each other. Henry Holmes is the main character who is better known as H.H is a murder disguised as a doctor, his appearance allows him to lure women and other people to him. H.H is not just a murder, he enjoys torturing people and watching them suffer which makes him not just a murderer but a real, living devil. Before moving to Chicago, when Holmes was not yet a devil he was an outcast as a child which lead up to him becoming the devil. For example, there was a haunting encounter with the doctor’s office, “Some kids brought him to a doctor's office and forced him to come face to face with a skeleton” (39) and the accidental death of his childhood friend in which he was present during that event. Furthermore, in the novel this quote explains H.H as a child, "he drifted through childhood as a small, odd, and exceptionally bright boy....in the cruel imaginations of his peers, he became prey" (38). This explains how Holmes was very different from his peers, and nobody could really explain it. However, he was unusually bright for his age which means he was more aware of the reality in the world in comparison to his friends. When H.H moved to Chicago in August of 1886, he enters E.S Holton Drugs and convinces the store owner Mrs. Holton to hire him. As a pharmacist, Holmes had gotten a lot of attention from women because he was an attractive younger man. In the novel, Holmes is explained as, "He walked with confidence and dressed well, conjuring an impression of wealth and achievement. He was twenty six years old. His height was five feet, eight inches; he weighed only 155 pounds. He had dark hair and striking blue eyes, once likened to the eyes of a Mesmerist" (35). Because of Holmes appearance he was able to lure women into falling for him, which means he could kill them. He married Myrta Belkap, he later on has a daughter named Lucy with her. Myrta gets jealous with then multiple women that Holmes sees at the drugstore, which strains their relationship. Holmes later on buys a hotel, and has people stay there and in his marriage he lures other women and becomes interested with them. The fact that he lures women and flirts with them throughout the novel, shows that H.H not only enjoys the murder he enjoys the slower process of watching them be torchered by someone whom they thought was a completely different person. This shows that Holmes is a real living devil, not only a murderer.
After he loses interest in the women he kills them, at this point there has been multiple disappearances in Chicago, however nobody has connected them to H.H because he is an upstanding citizen in their eyes. In the novel Larson uses a rhetorical question to invoke the readers, “Why had Holmes gone to the trouble and expense of moving the children from city to city, hotel to hotel, if only to kill them? Why he had bought each of them a crystal pen and taken them to the zoo and made sure they received lemon pie and ice cream? (348) He uses this to get the readers to view as the people who knew H.H, or who they thought he was. To show his readers how Holmes was capable of appearing as the perfect citizen, and be able to commit the crimes that he did. In this novel, Larson explains that evil is everywhere in the world. The Chicago Fair takes place at the happiest time in the world however, during this there was a murderer on the loose and nobody noticed. He is saying that there was multiple signs throughout the story that could have lead people to Holmes the killer, but they chose to look past the weird things about Holmes because of his standing in the community. Larson uses an example of irony about the so called great fair, “The fair was so perfect, its grace and beauty like an assurance that for as long as it lasted nothing truly bad could happen to anyone, anywhere” (289). This quote is ironic, everyone is experiencing the beauty in the Fair, but they cannot see the multiple disappearances of the women. Larson’s whole point is this, it is ironic that people can experiences happy things, but they cannot take into account that malicious things happen at the same time. Throughout the novel, there are many examples of appearance v.s reality.
Holmes did exceptionally well with getting the admiration of women, his mysteriously blue eyes lured them in. Larson goes into deeper explanation about Holmes’s character, “He broke prevailing rules of casual intimacy: He stood too close, stared too hard, touched too much and long. And women adored him for it” (36). This shows that Holmes did things differently, not many bothered though because he was attractive and the women seemed to relish him. This allowed H.H’s murders to be left as a secret, his appearance of a doctor allowed him to be considered above everyone else, and he also owned a hotel. However, people couldn't hear his thoughts Larson explains Holmes’s uncontrollable urge, “It was the details of the building that gave him the most pleasure… There would be a large basement with hidden chambers and a subbasement for the permanent storage of sensitive material… He could hardly imagine the pleasure that would fill his days when the building was finished and flesh-and-blood women moved among its features. As always, the thought aroused him” (67). The way Holmes thinks makes him not only a murderer, his state of reverie is a women's flesh and blood and the way it moves. His peers were not able to see the side of him, he was able to hide it very well under all of his beauty and wealth he would be the most unsuspecting murder in this white
city.