Nonfiction authors generally have a purpose for writing: To inform, to entertain, to persuade, or a combination of the three. Consider the purpose of your book. For your comment on this post, include a quotation (with the page number, as always) that shows the author's purpose for writing. Then, in a few sentences, explain what the quote reveals about purpose. Comment by Friday, 12/7.
9 Comments
Nikie Pete
11/30/2018 06:26:20 am
My first impression of the book was that it was very descriptive. I like this fact about the book, it is very easy for me to visualize everything that is going on due to this fact. I also found it interesting that they gave so much background information and mentioned other important events and people from around that time, such as Lizzie Borden and the 1890 census. I usually don’t enjoy this in books, however for this book I thought that not jumping right into the story really helped. It kept your mind off the murder for a while, but still kept hinting at it. Then in the next chapters in kinda changed around, I liked this because, to me, it was resembling how the people were feeling during this time period, with the sudden changes and the sudden disappearance and lost of love ones.
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Nikie
11/30/2018 06:27:19 am
Sorry this is the wrong one! i copy paste them from a document and i must have copied the wrong one!
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Leah Driehorst
11/30/2018 07:00:07 am
"Its official name was the World's Columbian Exposition, its official purpose to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America, but under Burnham, its chief builder, it had become something enchanting, known throughout the world as the White City" (Larson 4). In this quote Larson is describing Chicago's world fair of 1893. I personally think Larson wrote this book for the purpose of education and entertainment. In this quote Larson is spitting out many important facts, but he is also using imagery and descriptive language to draw the reader in and keep him/her interested and wanting more.
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Jessie Chen
11/30/2018 07:07:55 am
The purpose of "The Devil in The White City" is to inform reader about the history of the World's Columbian Exposition. "Its official name was the World's Columbian Exposition, its official purpose to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America, but under Burnham, its chief builder, it had become something enchanting, known throughout the world as the White City"(Larson 4). This quote shows that the main character is the architecture called Burnham, that make the Exposition known through the world. This quote is found in prologue of the book, it act as a foreshadow to what is going to happen in the book. The quote informed the reader that the book is about the rising and history of World's Columbian Exposition.
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Molly K
12/7/2018 03:53:53 am
The Devil in the White City obtained my interest as soon as I started reading the first page. I enjoy the way the author, Erik Larson began the story with the intention to inform the readers about the city of Chicago, where our story takes place. One quote that I really stood out to me was, "The Great Chicago Fire took nearly eighteen thousand buildings and left more than a hundred thousand people homeless" (Larson 19). This quote shows the history of Chicago, and one of the most important days in its history. From this quote I can gather that Erik Larson purpose was to inform the readers that Chicago is a city filled with endless light, but also has darkness lurking in its depths.
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Emily Halter
12/7/2018 04:50:28 am
The Chicago fair was major event to bless Chicago with a chance to show it's beauty to the world. Obtaining it came with enough hardships, as shown in the quote, "To build it Burnham had confronted a legion of obstacles, any of which could have—should have—killed it long before Opening Day" (Larson 8)
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Lydia C
12/7/2018 04:59:43 pm
The authors purpose of writing the book is to inform and entertain the reader about the importance of the events of the Chicago Worlds Fair. He shows his purpose by saying, "The burden of restoring the nation's pride and prominence in the wake of the Paris exposition had fallen upon Chicago" (Larson 33). This quote shows that it was very difficult for Chicago to top the Worlds Fair in Paris.
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Belle Easton
12/7/2018 07:50:02 pm
One quote from the book that I thought perfectly expressed Larson's reason for writing this book came up during the introduction. Larson was describing some of the back story and introducing our main character, Burham. "Its official name was the World's Columbian Exposition, its official purpose to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of Columbian discovery of America, but under Burham, its chief builder, it had become something enchanting, known throughout the world as the White City" (Larson 4). By writing this Larson pretty much sums up his whole point for writing the book. It shows that Larson wrote this book for education, as well as entertainment. Before reading this book, I had never even heard about this world fair in Chicago and know I have learned that is why it is sometimes referred to as the white city. So much information about Chicago as been spewed out through this book in the few chapter that I never even knew. That's why I believe it was Larson's intent to write this as more as an informational piece rather than a entertaining or persuasive one.
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Nikie P.
12/8/2018 01:04:43 pm
I believe that the authors purpose for writing this book is both to inform and entertain. The quote that I believe shows this to the reader the best is “Failure was unthinkable. If the fair failed, Burnham knew, the nation’s honor would be tarnished, [and] Chicago [would be] humiliated...” (Larson 33). The reason this showed the authors purpose is because it shows how important the fair was and how people felt about it, but the way it is written doesn’t make it seem as if it is simply to inform, it makes it more interesting.
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