Devil in the White City Blog #1

     The Devil in the White City is structured to parallel the bright and busy story of the "magic"  side of the World's Fair in 1893 and the dark and twisted story of the "murder and madness" fated to happen right outside its gates. The book reveals that there is an "ineluctable conflict between good and evil"; one cannot escape the presence of the other. The creators of the fair, especially Burnham and Olmsted, created a place of magic and light, both literal and figurative. They drew in people from all over the world to celebrate many cultures and progressions into the modern day. However, as the note Evils Imminent suggests, where there is light, there must be dark. Beyond the somewhat darker choices that had to be made to make the grand fair possible, e.g. routing water from a general area surrounding the town that it would be claimed to come from, the brightness of the Fair called out to evil. It was a place where young women, alone for the first time in their lives, felt safe, even adventurous. The shining presence of good and happiness can easily mask the presence of danger or evil, so naturally men like H. H. Holmes took interest in it as a place where his work could be easily done and go unnoticed.
     The essential difference between Holmes and Burnham, in fact, is the way in which they view an idea like the Fair. Both saw potential in the idea; both saw potential for benefit. However, who they imagined would benefit set them apart. Burnham saw Jackson Park as a place that would benefit as many as were willing to make the journey to see it. H.H. Holmes saw it as place that would inevitable benefit others, but would especially serve him in finding his "necessary supply". Most essentially, their differences came from a shared desire to change the face of notoriously dirty and crime-ridden Chicago. Burnham literally wanted to make the city whiter, cleaner, and better presented. Holmes loved Chicago for what it was, and only desired to add his own legacy.
     In spite of their conflict that occurs throughout the book without them meeting, Holmes and Burnham shared qualities and basic dreams that pulled them both into fame. Both men were indisputable geniuses; both jumpstarted and presented the future. Burnham created a fair that beckoned to inventors of America and the world, asking them to show what the future would look like. From the Electricity Building to the Manufacturing and Liberal Arts building and beyond, fairgoers saw amazing new inventions and products such as the motion picture and Cracker Jacks. Holmes created a hotel, and a crime scheme that advanced far from crime of the past. Holmes committed identity theft multiple times. He used his license as a physician to get future victims to trust him with their lives. As noted, both men dreamed about the future of Chicago and their own futures. What set them apart was whose benefit they focused their genius toward and what they hoped the future would look like.