Friday, October 11, 2013

The Devil in the White City

          I find the word choice in this novel to be quite advanced and old fashioned. I'm sure that the author chose this style to match the time frame of the book, because it would feel imbalanced if a book set in the past used the diction and style of a current day narrator. "It was so easy to disappear, so easy to deny knowledge, so easy in the smoke and din to mask that something dark had taken root. This was Chicago, on the eve of the greatest fair in history." -Larson. Words such as din are not used in today's language as much as synonyms like noise or sound. I think that using high level words and sentence structures was a very tactful choice for this novel. 
          The intended audience for this novel is made of people who are old enough to understand advanced language, and who know what the World's Fair is. There is not a definition of what the World's Fair is provided in the novel, because that would make it seem childish and give the author less ethos, due to the lack of sophistication. I think that Larson imagined young adults all the way to seniors reading his novel, because of the level of maturity that the book has. The older people are, it is more likely that they will have more extensive knowledge on the World's Fair in Chicago, but the younger end of the audience scale has access to information on it as well, in addition to the setting that the novel establishes. 
          Inductive reasoning is used as the structure of The Devil in the White City. The author writes in order of events based on where they happened in time. The story begins with a very broad topic, about the building of the fair and the city of Chicago. He then hones in on specific people and events, working towards a conclusion.   Logos is used as well, because this is historical non-fiction, facts, numbers and real events are described. 
Ethos is used in means of tone. The author speaks authoritatively, and we believe what he is saying because he appears to be very knowledgable. 

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