Burnham vs. Holmes

 "I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing...I was born with the Evil One standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since."

Dr. H. H. Holmes, confession, 1896

 You would think that a man who says that he has the devil in him would not have much in common with a Daniel Burnham. Burnham being an architect, and the chief builder of the White City, wanted to make something bigger and so much better than Paris's Eiffel Tower. Chicago and New York were at a race to who will get the most votes to hold the World's Fair in their city. Finally the votes were in and Chicago won by a landslide. So Burnham and Toole, his side man, helping him with anything and everything, were both chosen to help create, map out, and build the World's Fair in Chicago. This could make them millions and millions of dollars or it could completely break them if they have a catastrophe in the fair. The World's Fair was a place of magic. Filling the hard-working people of Chicago with pride and happiness as they walked down the streets full with joyous people and their children.
 Dr H. H. Holmes was a handsome young sociopath trained in medicine, with a lust for torture and murder. He lived on 63rd street and Wallace street, in a dark gothic "Castle" built in the World's Fair. This serial killers "castle" was a bleak and ugly building. But once someone travels inside it becomes a building with trapped door, secret passageways and a wooden slide that goes in to an iron vault that would travel down in to the basement. In Holmes basement was home to a dissection table, a gas chamber, lime pits, and a 3,000-degree crematorium. He received the house he lives in through his skill in manipulating paperwork and people. Young Dr. Holmes was a master at both. This domain was a killing machine that Burnham was building just for him. No else could understand what the hotel could become except for Holmes. Women started to come to the city for work. But lived in apartments far away from their family. But because the hotel was so close to the Fair, many young women had been persuaded by others to move in, and many were never to be seen alive again.
 Erik Larson's melodramatic novel is genius. The book is trying to give you an understanding of the good and evil in a man that makes this more than just a true crime book. The each chapter's style is juxtaposing Burnham with Holmes giving the reader a vivid sense of their parallel lives.

"Beneath the gore and smoke and loam, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow"  ~Erik Larson

The juxtaposition of these two men is a look in to the nature of men and their own ambitions. Both are attractive, they both have their own agenda, both very particular about their work, Both fates were intertwined.

Post #3

Over the many years, England progressively expanded a firm grip in Ireland. 1541, the parliament in Dublin renowned England’s Henry VIII, a Protestant, as King of Ireland. In spitefulness of recurring uprisings by Irish Catholics, English Protestants acquired more and more land in Ireland. By 1703, the English Protestants owned everything except 10% of the territory. in the meantime, legislation was passed that severely restricted the rights of the Irish to hold office in the government, buy real estate, go to school, and advance themselves in lots of other ways. As a result, many Irish ran away to other foreign lands, including America. Most of those who lingered behind in Ireland lived in poverty, facing disease, starvation, and prejudice. It was this Ireland that Jonathan Swift attempted to focus attention on in “A Modest Proposal” in 1720.

......."A Modest Proposal" was originally printed in the form of a pamphlet. Writers of pamphlets, during this time, played a significant role in inflaming or resolving many of the great controversies in Europe in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Jonathan Swift writes “A Modest Proposal as an essay that uses satire to make its point. He is creating his work into a piece that attacks or pokes fun at abuses, stupidity, and/or any other fault or defect. Swift also mocks the Irish themselves in his essay, for too many of them had accepted abuse stoically rather than taking any kind of action on their own behalf to stand for what they believe in. Swift makes the reader laugh at and feel disgust for. Wickedly and sarcastically, he criticizes population control in Ireland using wit and clever wording—and occasionally makes outrageous statements. The main idea of his satirical essay is to urge reader to remedy the problem under discussion. The main weapon of the wit in Swifts paper I would have to say is verbal irony, a figure of speech in which words are used to ridicule a person or thing by conveying a meaning that is the opposite of what the words say.

Jonathan Swift writes:

“…Therefore, I suggest that of the 120,000 new infants of poor parents, 20,000 be reserved for breeding and the rest be sold to people of quality…”

“…A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter...”

“…Only young, tender children would be sold. Older boys, with years of exercise that develops their muscles, would be too tough to eat. Older girls would be so close to childbearing age that it would be best to let them breed…”

“…Men would become as fond of their wives, during the time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage…”

These are all clearly outrageous statements that Swift is simply just trying to reach the attention of the public so they will get an understanding of how important this issue is and how it can affect Ireland later on. Swift satirizes the English landlords with outrageous humor, proposing that Irish newborns will be sold as food at age one, when they are plump and healthy, to give the Irish a new source of income and the English a new food product to strengthen their economy and do away with all of their social problems. He satirizes the prejudice of Protestants towards Catholics. He says his proposal, if it were to be adopted, would also result in a drop in the number of Catholics in Ireland, since most Irish babies—almost all of whom were baptized Catholic—would end up in stews and other dishes instead of growing up to go to Catholic churches. He views the Irish people with no morals it seems, or no sense for dignity or initiative.

Post #2

Ernest Hemingway talks about a hero as someone who is brave, rough, and can take the pressure. Meaning that he has the confidence in himself, that he can confront crazy situations with a clean mind and the courage he would need to fight through. The characters that are seen as hero's during this book, like Romero, who can relate his genuine personality and fearlessness. Romero shows his true heroic spirit inside the bull arena when he becomes a matador.  His body begins to move gracefully and he shows how effortless the fighting is for him, but his humble nature conveys his sense of humility, but this should not be taken as low self-esteem.  He takes pride in his work and understands it but he just doesn't feel the need to catch the attention and fame from others. Romero doesn't just see bullfighting as a sport or a job, he takes to it with the confidence and grace that he truly needs to conquer the bull. It relates to all aspects in his life, such as his relationship with Ashley Brett. She's portrys danger for all who lay the wandering eye on her. Romero has a feeling that he wants to connect with Brett. He thinks he can just win like he would with a bull. I feel as though I can juxtapose my experiences with this situation as well. 
Okay, short story:
At my duration of working my long houred shifts at Pietro's, one of the cooks came up to me and said that the other cook, Jose*, stares at me too much, in the bad way too. And it freaked me out a little bit, and i feel like the cook is thinking how Romero is and he thinks he can just have me and make me just as easily as he does to his pizzas.
The End.