3

The ineluctable conflict between good and evil is revealed in the book Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, the story of the World’s Exposition Fair that took place in Chicago in 1893. The story takes two main points, each side taking turns in the chapters of the book. The first is the view of Burnham, an architect who organized the fair, and the second is Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer. Good is represented by Burnham, who tries his best to improve the fair and make it the best that it can possibly be. Evil is represented by Dr. H. H. Holmes, who seems to only think about gaining finances, taking advantage of women, and murdering women or those who get in the way of his plans. While these men are both drastically different, with Burnham helping society and Holmes silently disrupting it, the two actually have a lot in common with each other. Both men are architects. Burnham pursues architectural design as a career, and started up his own business practice. Holmes is also an architecture even though he is a doctor. Holmes planned out a hotel in which he hired many, many men to build parts of. Only Holmes knew what the overall design of the hotel was because he was the only one who managed the overall layout, and went through workers very quickly. Some workers would only build a little bit of the hotel before Holmes fired them to make sure that they didn’t know every intricacy of the building. Both men are ambitious. At a very young age, Holmes became very successful financially. He also finished college and medical school, something that’s not very common among serial killers. During the months before the fair, Burnham stresses how important it is to finish every building in time for opening day.
Good and evil conflict in quite a few ways. There is, of course, the obvious reason that Holmes is murdering those who would attend the fair and thus therefore he is hurting the profit of the fair. But that’s only the surface. The doctor’s activity is chilling and horrific, that it may lead one to question their own safety. Holmes is, after all, the first serial killer in America. Anyone would be concerned for their own safety or for the safety of their family. The fair was created to bring families together in awe of what Chicago could offer. It wasn’t something that just an individual went to; rather, the families were always brought along for the vacation. The murders disrupted the peaceful family ideal by striking panic and fear among those who knew about them. Holmes murdered mainly women. These women, however, were women who were new to Chicago and the idea of freedom. He was able to take advantage of them, something that a typical “bad guy” would do. Unfortunately for these girls, though, Burnham isn’t the typical “good guy” who will save them from the villain. Just who is the “good guy”? Or is there no good guy at all?