The Shadow of Light

Erik Larson gives insight into the hero and villain of Chicago.  Through the concept of light and darkness, Larson builds Chicago into a struggle of how the city will be perceived by the rest of the world.  With Burnham, Larson turns Chicago into the White City, filled with structures that attempt to push America to glory for the World’s Fair.  But Larson then mars Chicago’s image but introducing the devil to the White City, Holmes. Both have an ongoing yet unknown battle for the prize of Chicago and its legacy, and each attempt to achieve their goals because they are the best of the best at what they do.

                These two great men are the embodiments of “the ineluctable conflict between good and evil.”

                Burnham was an honest man working for an honest cause.  He came to the White City with aspirations of the American dream.  He fulfilled his goals and was chosen to be the leader of designing the Columbus Exposition.  He was to make not only his city, but his country a symbol of honor and achievement.  Through this task that was bestowed upon him, he engaged the impossible and succeeded; the pressure that his world bore down on him turned him into a bright, shining diamond – the hero of the White City.

                But for every diamond in the rough, there is always a lump of coal that darkens the city with a malevolent shadow, a shadow that intended to destroy the shining White City that Burnham was building.  Holmes had the tools he needed to become anything or anyone.  He had unmatched charm and wit that stood second to none.  He had no enemies, because even they were subject to the power of Dr. Holmes’ charisma.  Holmes decided that the only challenge to him was the challenge of a human’s mortality.  Murder was the only true stimulant that this man had, killing was his only arousal. Holmes is the antithesis of our hero Burnham.  Where Burnham sought nobility, Holmes sought sorrow. 

                But these two men shared something greater than physical or emotional traits – they shared an idea.  The same idea had sprouted in each man’s brain that would propel them to dominate their field of expertise. These men sought success, and this idea of being the best put a vice grip on their minds and affected how they would determine their own fate.  These men were opposites, yet they were the same.  They were the epitome of light and dark, the whitest of white and blackest of black, but the small grey link that connected them, a single idea, made them essentially the same in how they thought.

                Erik Larson used these men to tell a story about an event that changed America.  These men are the archetypes in American history for their chosen paths.  Although they strove for success, they received much more than that; they gained the embodiment of good and evil, and serve as models for an actual hero or villain as they are in the real world.