Allison’s Comments (group member since Oct 13, 2015)

Allison’s comments from the Last but not Least group.

Personally I believe this whole book is almost written in admiration of her parents. They did a lot of messed up things but they really do care about their kids. I believe her parents actions symbolize the contrast between wanting to remain young(endless 20s) and the responsibility of parenthood and raising children. Also going against the grain, never staying in one place once, creating these elaborate plans to make this glass castle.

The narrator seems to have grown up with two parents who care very little about their children and a lot about themselves. Growing up in such an unstable environment, for example "I was on Fire."(walls,9), the author gets straight to the point. Her parents just don't care. At the age of three she was not only cooking for herself but boiling hot dogs!! What kind of parent lets their child use the stove unsupervised? At the age of 3 no less!! I predict this absent mindedness of the child's parents will lead to larger issues through out the book and further explain why she was so embarrassed of her childhood. It also must have shaped her life and her own personal values growing up like that.

In order to strengthen his theme that everything isn't as it seems Larson continually compares Holmes to other people. This contrast is seen almost immediately in the note included and again when we are first introduced to this seemingly handsome, successful, young doctor type with piercing blue eyes and a suave mustache. "To women as yet unaware of his private obsessions, it was an appealing delicacy. He broke prevailing rules of casual intimacy: he stood too close, stared too hard, touched too much and long..."(Larson 36) Larson puts a lot of emphasis on how handsome Holmes is. "As he moved through the station, the glances of young women fell around him like wind blown petals."(Larson 35) I believe its to contrast the typical idea of what danger looks like. It is pretty clear that Holmes is the Devil in the white city for obvious reasons. Larson is making a statement by doing this, he is saying that danger isn't always as obvious as rouge horses, street cars, and fires. Danger is that handsome doctor who just bought the drug store in Englewood. Danger is inviting and handsome just as Holmes was.

On page 290-291 Larson is talking about how the weather might effect the fire work display planned for later that night (independence day), but instead larson describes an extravagant display which contrasts the events happening at the world fair. There is such an immense feeling of pride in the description of the red white and blue display. "... a huge American flag against a black sky."(pg 291) This contrast shows that although something terrible is going on the patriotism and pride in america remains true. As if the one good thing is their freedom experienced in these great United States.

Michaela wrote: "Erik Larson's note at the beginning of the book is served to compare the two main characters in the book. The contrast between them is a constant throughout the whole book yet their similarities ar..."

good point michaela! i totally agree, he is comparing them and setting up the story. Since H. H Holmes is accredited as Americas first serial killer its almost shocking to compare him so closely to the orchestrator of the World Fair. Which coincidently our killer used to lure victims into his torture hotel. he even says "Although the two never met, at least not formally, their fates were linked by a single, magical event..."

Throughout the novel there is a persistent use of color and sensory diction. I believe Larson does this to literally paint the picture, since this was in a time period when color pictures weren't a thing. "If the photographer saw anything in Mudgett's eyes, it was a pale blue emptiness that he knew, to his sorrow, no existing film could ever record."(pg 40). This example not only appeals to pathos by making the reader feel a little creeped out (in context), it also makes way to the theme of sanity vs insanity. By using pale blue and emptiness he makes an impression that something clearly isn't right with this guy. if he had said just blue the same effect wouldnt of been reached

I agree with Sydney and how it's showing how nothing ever goes right for Burnham. His adding that emphasizes that no matter how good something is for him there's something else going wrong. Which seems to be a continuing theme throughout the book and his life.