Analysis of the literary style and purpose in killers of the flower moon: the osage murders and the birth of the fbi

Purpose of the book

The purpose of the book was to shift the readers view on the so called “ Wild West” and the treatment of Native Americans, while also teaching and providing the facts and stories about the relatively unknown mystery of the Osage Reign of Terror, that many have never heard about in history textbooks.

Summary and critical assessment of the author’s argument

Thesis of the book

I think that the author was trying to express through this book how back in the time of the osage murders, Native Americans and minorities were treated extremely poorly compared to today. This book tries to express the resentment and jealousy that the non-Osage people felt about small and “ uncivilised” tribe of Indians went from rags to riches. The author tells the true accounts of how strongly the everyone resented the rich Osage Indians, to the point where they murdered them and covered up the crimes to take the land and riches away from the Osage.

Summary of book’s content, indicating how the thesis is developed.

I think the author’s writing was very credible, his writing was based on many professional and different sources which helps strengthen his point. He used information from a variety of FBI files, grand jury testimony, court transcripts, field reports, oral histories and many more valid and true sources.

Critical assessment of book

In the book there are 26 chapters, but those chapters are split into three different Chronicles, that are from different character’s perspectives. The first chronicle, which consists of 7 chapters, is from the point of view of Mollie Burkhart, Mollie was the last surviving member of her Osage family. Her two sisters and her mother all died very recently. Her mother and sister had died of illness but her younger sister went missing and was later found murdered. David Grann writes of how Mollie Burkhart went about trying discover how her sister was murdered, yet she is always watching her back

Style and presentation

I think that the style and presentation of the story was excellent, the author was able to describe the sceneries and situations in a way that made the dialogue and actions feel very authentic. He also was able to structure the paragraphs and chapters in a way that kept the reader on the edge by adding new leads and information but was also able to excellently able to make the reader feel like the story was really going somewhere. c. Use of supporting materials (footnotes/endnotes, pictures, graphs, maps, charts, tables, index, etc.) d. Intended audience (What readership is the author hoping to reach? Is it academic or popular?) I don’t think that the author had one specific audience, I think by writing this book he wanted to be able to accurately tell the story of the Osage Murders and to properly educate anyone that is interested in American History, true crime or anyone that would be interested in learning about a subject that has been glossed over in American History.

Conclusion

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone because it has a little bit of everything, so I feel a wide variety of people could enjoy. The book is very well written and could interest almost anyone that would read it. I also do believe that the author accomplished his purpose of bringing the facts and true accounts of this part of history that not many people have heard about. He writes it the way that it seemed like it happened back in the 1920’s, with a lot of information to start with and process, with a seemingly endless amount of plot twists that makes this book feel very authentic and accurate.