The Devil in the White City conveys a constant theme of good and evil and how the two are intertwined. Larson switches every other chapter from Burnham's story to Holmes', a seemingly back and forth between someone who is bringing good into this world and another who is taking good from it. One lesson learned right at the start is that no matter where you go or how great of a thing you think you're doing, evil things will always lurk in the shadows. There will always be a "black" city within the "white." In this case, Holmes uses the wonderful, reinventing idea of the world's exposition to his advantage and sets traps for all of the innocent travelers that have come to revel in the fair's glory. When comparing and contrasting Burnham and Holmes to one another, we must first evaluate their essential difference: the intention behind their madness. Burnham does and says everything for the continual progression of society and to bring about one of the greatest architectural feats ever to have been attempted. Holmes, on the other hand, brings no benefit to the people and his actions are only out of self-pleasure and lust for human flesh. Though it may seem like the two men could never be alike, they have one quality that ties them together: obsession.
Holmes is, as Larson says, the "harbinger of an American archetype, the urban serial killer" and so created the precedent for many American serial killers in later years. His extreme attention to detail and persistence in building a fool-proof house gives him the exact obsessive qualities of that of a psychopath. He makes sure the furnace is just right and the even eliminates any odors from the burning bodies, as well as testing out his vault to make sure it was sound-proof and dampen the screams. He almost when as far as pushing his wife's uncle off the roof of his building to avoid him finding a fraud check Holmes had written. He was so obsessed with death that it did not scare him, not did it disturb him that he killed to kill, and not for something like revenge. Burnham now did not go around killing people, but he had his own obsession with building his massive fair and getting the Board of Architects essentially "on board." Sullivan wrote that in his firm Burnham was fixed with an "irrevocable purpose in life, for the sake of which he would bend or sacrifice all else." He also said that "Daniel Burnham was obsessed by the feudal idea of power," meaning that he wanted nothing more than to take control and would give up all he had in order to succeed in his line of work.
These men both set precedents in their time. Burnham created towering skyscrapers and the archetype of the obsessive, over-working business man. Holmes created the archetype of the modern serial killer and his various ways of executing a murder. Both have played key roles throughout society over the years and molded the way we live today, under constant pressure and long hours, and under constant fear of people unknown. With all the "good" that arose from this era and its industrial advances, "evil" came as its partner, making people wary and cautious as they walk in the shadows of these corporal giants.
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