Devil in the White City takes place in Chicago, during the great World’s Exposition Fair in the 19th century. The fair was extravagant. The buildings were huge and the architects and fair planners looked forward to an attendance rate of two hundred thousand people each day that the fair would be running, which was about six months. That means that altogether, they hoped that the overall attendance would be at about thirty six million people.
Some may argue that the architects and designers of the fair created it to be overly extravagant, implying that they had an air of arrogance about them. It is entirely true; the designers and the architects even admitted it themselves. The reason behind the extravagant buildings was that they wanted the Chicago Fair to be much better than the Paris Fair held a few years earlier. The greatest monument of the Paris Fair was the tower that Eiffel designed, and it was this tower that architects wanted to top in the Chicago Fair. Multiple designs were rejected that could have easily been better than the Eiffel tower, but apparently they weren’t good enough to surpass it. Until, of course, they accepted the design of a rotating wheel submitted by Ferris.
Multiple other occasions also added to the arrogance of the fair. Buffalo Bill wanted a day where all of the children could get into the fair for free (he was thinking of the orphans at this time), but officials didn’t like that idea because they wouldn’t get any profit from the boost of attendance. This displays the minds of the officials in that they were focused on the financial aspect of the fair, not making the fair better for the civilians of the world.
While these may suggest a darker, destructive parallel, they certainly do not necessarily automatically engender it. The fair does not automatically lead to destruction. While the fair was very arrogant to say the least, there were many positive aspects from the fair. Without the fair, we wouldn’t have had some of the modern everyday occurrences. Some inventions were on the smaller scale, such as Cracker Jack and Shredded Wheat. The most significant invention was probably Ferris’s wheel, which was the symbol of the entire Chicago Fair.
The only destructive parallel was the fact that H. H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer, performed his murders around the fair. He built a hotel near the fair in anticipation of flocking guests from around the United States and around the world as well. His murders were able to go unnoticed because of the hustle and bustle of the fair, so one might argue that if the fair never happened, these innocent lives would be saved. There would also be a counter-argument to that: What if more murders would happen because the fair did not happen? Who is to say that Dr. H. H. Holmes would not have found somewhere else to execute his murders and remain unnoticed?
But ultimately, the fact that many single women seeking employment (his target for his murders) came to Chicago because of the opportunities the fair provided, the fair contributed to a destructive parallel.
Some may argue that the architects and designers of the fair created it to be overly extravagant, implying that they had an air of arrogance about them. It is entirely true; the designers and the architects even admitted it themselves. The reason behind the extravagant buildings was that they wanted the Chicago Fair to be much better than the Paris Fair held a few years earlier. The greatest monument of the Paris Fair was the tower that Eiffel designed, and it was this tower that architects wanted to top in the Chicago Fair. Multiple designs were rejected that could have easily been better than the Eiffel tower, but apparently they weren’t good enough to surpass it. Until, of course, they accepted the design of a rotating wheel submitted by Ferris.
Multiple other occasions also added to the arrogance of the fair. Buffalo Bill wanted a day where all of the children could get into the fair for free (he was thinking of the orphans at this time), but officials didn’t like that idea because they wouldn’t get any profit from the boost of attendance. This displays the minds of the officials in that they were focused on the financial aspect of the fair, not making the fair better for the civilians of the world.
While these may suggest a darker, destructive parallel, they certainly do not necessarily automatically engender it. The fair does not automatically lead to destruction. While the fair was very arrogant to say the least, there were many positive aspects from the fair. Without the fair, we wouldn’t have had some of the modern everyday occurrences. Some inventions were on the smaller scale, such as Cracker Jack and Shredded Wheat. The most significant invention was probably Ferris’s wheel, which was the symbol of the entire Chicago Fair.
The only destructive parallel was the fact that H. H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer, performed his murders around the fair. He built a hotel near the fair in anticipation of flocking guests from around the United States and around the world as well. His murders were able to go unnoticed because of the hustle and bustle of the fair, so one might argue that if the fair never happened, these innocent lives would be saved. There would also be a counter-argument to that: What if more murders would happen because the fair did not happen? Who is to say that Dr. H. H. Holmes would not have found somewhere else to execute his murders and remain unnoticed?
But ultimately, the fact that many single women seeking employment (his target for his murders) came to Chicago because of the opportunities the fair provided, the fair contributed to a destructive parallel.
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