In both of the books, setting and characterization is used to show the attractive nature of darkness. In The Devil in the White City and In Cold Blood, both of the authors use setting in order to show the compelling nature of darkness. Throughout The Devil in the White City, the great Chicago fair is mention. It is described in great detail about how it started out, its journey, and its end result. It is “…so easy to disappear, so easy to deny knowledge, so very easy in the smoke and din to mask that something dark had taken root” (Larson 12).
He portrays the swamp as a wildlife resort, where tourists would come and go to see a beautiful place. This fact is expressed in his careful and descriptive diction, such as, "wildlife refuge,""giant tupelo," and "bald cypress," which helps the reader understand that the Okefenokee Swamp is an amazing location, even though it has an informative textbook like tone. The author depicts the animals as just being there on the side minding their own business; mentioning only the harmless ones. He adds, “Alligators are also present,” as a casual reminder. This further implies that the author uses formal diction and an informative tone to disregard the evil lurking in the swamps by only giving facts that establish an illustration of a perfect swamp.
Lake Huron is one of the Great Lakes and a major part of our fresh water system, which contains many wildlife and species. The lake however, is in a real danger, adversely effecting habitats, fish, wildlife, and human lives. Lake Huron has become a dumping ground for many companies, dumping waste that contains many pollutants. Bacteria levels have increased in the lake which can cause serious illness. These pollutants have reduced water quality, contaminated soils, and damaged the Lake’s ecosystems.
Though, what transpired there was a dose of harsh reality and also a learning experience. He describes the lake to us, “The Indians had called it Wakan, a reference to the clarity of its waters. Now it was fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires. There was a single ravaged island a hundred yards from shore, so stripped of vegetation it looked as if the air force had staffed it. We went up to the lake because everyone went there, because we wanted to snuff the rich scent of possibility on the breeze, watch a girl take off her clothes and plunge into the festering murk, drink beer, smoke pot, howl at the stars, savor the incongruous full-throated roar of rock and roll against the primeval susurrus of frogs and crickets.
“Greasy Lake,” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, is the coming of age tale of three young “tough guys” who discover the real meaning of tough in the visceral forms of violence and mortality. In an ill-fated party trip to Greasy Lake, the boys inadvertently attract the enraged attention of a true-to-life tough guy, and in the ensuing fight the narrator strikes down the older, stronger, man. The boys, pumping with adrenaline, attack the unconscious man’s date in a serendipitously aborted rape attempt, then flee to the woods and into the lake itself for safety from reprisal. In the course of the escape, the protagonist undergoes a series of psychological shocks, effectively beginning his transformation into an adult. The boys set themselves against middle class society, posing as “dangerous characters” (Boyle 77), and costuming themselves in “torn-up leather jackets,…[while striking] elaborate poses to show that [they] didn’t give a shit about anything” (Boyle 77).
On a deeper level however, he is criticizing not only the condition of the city itself, but the monarchy and government who oppress it. Wordsworth’s poem is also a recollection. At its simplest it describes how, as a child, he stole a boat and rowed it out onto the lake at night. At a metaphorical
Because Greasy Lake is an area of nature that has been corrupted by humans with broken glass and beer cans, it becomes the perfect scenery for our “bad characters” to act accordingly and “howl at the stars” the way wolves do, evoking primitive and ruthless behavior. This climaxes when conflict arises between them and the “greasy character” that they encounter at the lake. Through the narrator we see how a “murderous primal instant involving no more than 60 hyperventilating, gland flooding seconds” causes instinct to fight and kill ones attacker out of a combination of shock, rage and impotence. At one point, Jeff even bites the ear of the man, fighting the way a primitive animal would. Initially, the boys compared themselves to wolves, mentally inserting a label which enables them to embrace their primeval instincts.
The lake itself is described as “fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires.” (130) However, as the narrator explains, the lake was not always like this but instead was named “Wakan” by “the Indians”, the name being “a reference to the clarity of its waters.” (130) The complete change of the lake since the time of the Indians, from clear to murky, exemplifies the corruption of the society’s morals, especially in contrast to the Native Americans who praised and looked after the land. The Wakan, or Greasy Lake, is a symbol for the youth culture itself in the story and is littered, literally and metaphorically, by alcohol, sex and violence. Through the use of the setting as a symbol of corruption and sin, Boyle creates a wild and uncertain atmosphere. In doing so, he allows the characters to have more freedom and gives the story more believability as the events become more extreme. Along with making the action more believable, the setting helps to make the characters more believable.
There is a correlation between Chillingworth and the Black Man because both are said to dwell in the woods. It is also interesting to mention that when we first see Chillingworth he is leaving the forest and heathens. This is interesting because one could think he had developed the precursors for his evils in the dark forest. Chillingworth’s physical characteristics are often compared to dark aspects of nature such as fire and nighttime. The comparison to fire is relative to his transportation because it represents the evil in him but also the destructive force of his nature.
The word ‘debris’ being used emphasises the sense of destruction on the inferior side of the river. This could be a foreshadowing of the destruction of Lennie that is coming at the end of the story. The setting of the river could make the reader think that as the story (the river) goes on throughout it as it ‘flows’ there is good and bad outcomes throughout the book which. From just the first few lines the reader can infer this and know something intense will come