H.H Holmes and the "White City"

I was personally disturbed with Holmes and how he went about his murders. He said that he couldn’t help the fact that he was a murderer but the way that he captured the love of his victims with his charm and then so easily disposed of them was awful. For many of these women he showed them the first real signs of hope and happiness in their life, only to take it away with a cloud of gas and a rag soaked with chloroform. Holmes destroyed so many families and so many dreams and had no remorse. I know it is obvious to have distaste for a murderer but Holmes was worse, by first establishing a strong connection with his victims and their families, and then finding contentment in having the power to rid them from his life.

On a diffrent note, The fair was able give the American people a distraction from the economic turmoil that existed nationwide. People who went to the fair took pride in it during a time when the mood around America was filled with negative sentiment. It was one thing that native Chicagoans could hang their hats on. Maybe, with the dreadful state of the economy we could use our own "White City"?

Pupose

What do you think the purpose of the book is?

As I first contemplated this question, I thought of the contrasting stories of Burnham and Holmes. I believed that Larson wanted to show how two innovative, determined characters chose different paths in life and the outcomes of these paths.  

Then I dug a bit deeper and came to a realization that Larson's main purpose was to show the American character at the time. While he did mainly focus on the narratives of Burnham and Holmes, he included multiple anecdotes pertaining to all different types of Americans. Through the stories of Burnham and Holmes he was able to show the uncomfortable situation which America was struggling with; they desired fame and recognition, but crime and evil seemed to be inevitable. The brief anecdotes, which Larson provides, shed light onto the other facets and aspects of American society at the time such as immigration, women's rights, social class strife and unions. 

Labor Unions FTW!

While Larson concentrated on the horrors of crime and murder during the Columbian Exhibition, there were many other unfortunate occurrences that happened that he didn't touch upon. These unfortunate occurrences would have only been greater if there had not been labor unions building the fair.

Hey, remember that time it was below freezing and super windy during both the winters and falls the Fair was being built? Wouldn't have sucked to be outside for 8 hours a day building an enormous structure that could be blown on top of you at any time? And not being able to see your family for months at a time while you sold your soul to the Columbian Exhibition construction?

Those things sound pretty terrible to me. Oh, and may I remind you that all of these conditions happened with labor unions.

Larson briefly mentions deaths of workers as he discusses the construction of the fair. I'm sure it's needless to remind you that many, many more workers died than the couple he mentioned.

Yes, the unionized labor upped the costs of construction and often slowed the process down, but without it, the conditions would have been worse than they were.

The most powerful sections of the book

Larson says he tried to recreate the murders plausibly, giving his best guess of how they actually happened. One of the only emotional descriptions in the entire book that was not a quote from someone's overly romantic journal was the description of Holmes's pleasure at feeling the cool chloroform on his fingers. And now that I think about it, the only other description that I can remember is a description of Anna's reaction to being locked in the vault.
When I read the description of the first murder, where Holmes kills the woman with chloroform, I found myself indifferent. She went quickly and probably didn't realize what was happening. I can deal with reading these murders, I told myself. But then when I read about the murder of Anna, I wanted to tear the book up. I felt so bad for Anna. Why did I care so much more about the second murder?
I think hated Anna's murder for several reasons.
1) Anna was just expecting to grab a file, not to be locked in the vault.
2) She was probably in there for a long time, and she was probably terrified the entire time.
3) She didn't go searching for trouble in Chicago like the other girls, she was invited to come.
4) Larson really described her emotional situation, even though he only could speculate.

So for these reasons I really had a hard time getting through the description of Anna's murder. That was when Holmes switched from being a bad guy that I was rooting for to being a bad guy that I wanted to kill.

Another thing that made me very angry was the way Holmes did not send the little girl's letters to her mother.

These were the most powerful sections of the book for me.

Also another lasting impression that the book gave me is the negative view of labor unions. They threatened to stop the fair and only seemed like a bad thing.

Larson is ineffective

I think that on the surface most would say that the story of Holmes would be the more interesting one. The story of the architect Burnham could be just as enganging but Larson's simple style of writing without dialogue prohibits that. I would love to hear more about the fair and the people involved than boring facts that seem to be there just as fillers. I felt detached from the characters throughout most of the story, maybe due to the lack of dialogue . The beginning of the book was so hard to get through because Larson's writing was so unimiginative and tiresome. What do you guys think, Should his writing have been more animated and creative, were those various facts necessary?
Jason

More tone...

Ok, so now looking back at that post, I realize that at that point in my reading, I didn't comprehend that the book was non fiction. Therefore, I found the tone to be particularly distinctive. Yet, regardless, the fact that Larson chose to write this account in a novelistic manner, but yet keep the reserved tone must be significant. I still hold that it does contribute to creating a mood of suspense and mystery, but at the same time balances his attempt at a novel style by making the book a bit more "non fictionish". I find the book to run smoother now that the fair has begun. There seems to be shorter chapters, focusing on more ancedotal material as opposed to the lenghty planning of the fair. Comment back guys!!