Summary Of 'Taken Root' By Joseph Larson

Larson uses quite eerie language as Holmes is introduced to the Chicago setting by describing holmes dwellings as a “gloomy castle” surrounded in “ smoke and din” and Holmes himself as “something dark... take[i]n[g] root”. Specifically the phrase “taken root” brings to mind the idea of a weed that will soon choke out all of the brightness that surrounds it as it continues to grow just as holmes will take the light from the arriving fair. Larson also repeats the phrase “so easy” followed by a phrase of dark connotation such as “to disappear”. This string of words commands the mental voice to take on that of a madman reveling in his wickedness, rambling in a raspy voice that it was all “so easy” as Holmes surely was. A rather fitting analogy