Daniel Burnham is one of the main characters in the story and his belief is ambition. Daniel Burnham is constantly haunted by the rejection from Yale and Harvard as a young man. Through out the book he constantly thinks about being snubbed from both universities. This drives him to sacrifice all else and bend everything and anything to gain power and show his worth as an architect. On page 105, Sullivan describes Burnham, “Daniel Burnham was obsessed by the feudal idea of power.” Burnham is highly motivated to complete this fair and is even willing to sacrifice seeing his family to pursue this ambition.

 

John Root- Creativity, This may seem very easy to pick for John Root, because his creativity and innovation is what allowed him to get a contract with Burnham on the World Fair. What stood out to me the most about John Root’s creativity was the admiration and respect he was given by Burnham and other architects. Root was known as the architectural genius between him and Daniel Burnham. The biggest insight to John Root’s innovation and creativity came from Burnham. At the end of part I (pg. 108), when Root dies you can see how much Root meant to Burnham and the genius he brought to their partnership.

 

Holmes is the other main character in this story and his main belief is power. He enjoys having this control over young women traveling to Chicago and he uses his charismatic demeanor to attract these women. I think he obsesses over this power and enjoys this rush when he kills. He benefits greatly from the World Fair and uses his hotel to further his quest for power.

At the very end of part one on page 109 H.H Holmes writes; “ 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 think this quote from Holmes points out the belief he has for himself as being nothing but what he was born to be. He doesn’t fight with his “demons”, as some other murders might, he accepts them as being part of him, being part of what makes him great and charismatic. The same way that the many demons make Chicago the city it is.

Daniel Burnham- on page 128 Erik Larson brings up the abundance of letters Burnham has been sending his wife. He wrote to his wife; “You must not think thus hurry of my life will last forever. I shall stop after the worlds fair, I have made up my mind to this.” I think that Burnham holds strong in his value and beliefs of family and this is shown so far throughout the book. I do think though that it could be argued that he is losing that value with the more time and effort he gives to the world fair. Erik Larson in the same passages makes note of how close Burnham and his wife actually are in distance and how easy it could be to go home.

On page 120 and 121 When Charles Atwood is introduced, I think that introducing him as an opium addict, is clearly drawing a line between the values of Burnham and Atwood. Erik Larson describes him as having “black gun-muzzled eyes”, shortly after explaining the darkness of his eyes by his opium addiction. As an opium addict I think that his values and beliefs are completely opposite from that of Burnham, aside from the fact that either would do anything to get the high. For Atwood that is opium, for Burnham that is the satisfaction the finished fair with provide him.