Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
January 27, 2009
On reading the Devil in the White City, a few thoughts came to mind. In my opinion, the death of Root came quite sudden. Root was playing a major role as one of the architects and as Burham’s best friend. Dora, Root’s second wife, calls Burham and tells him that Root is ill with pneumonia. Burham goes to visit Root and suddenly Root dies. This was a major crises for Burham as all his work towards the exposition was done hand in hand with Root. As such I was quite taken aback as in only a couple of pages, Root went from healthy to dead.
I found the chapter “The Black City” quite interesting. Larson’s description of Chicago was intriguing as it gave a foundation for the events to come later in the book. He mentions the crime, fire and the fact that working women were at a risk. I was particularly influenced by how Larson ended that chapter in which he says “it was so easy to disappear, so easy to deny knowledge, so very easy in the smoke and din to mask that something dark had taken root. This was Chicago on the eve of the exposition.”(12)