Essay Questions

Is the Great Hurricane of 1938 an actual historical event?

Truman Capote did the 21st century no great favor when he made the previously little explored concept of the non-fiction novel the stuff of bestseller lists and lucrative movie deals with the publication of In Cold Blood. The novel based on actual historical events but told through either fictional characters or invented fictional perspectives of actual people was long understood to be a hybrid until the arrival of mass dissemination of misinformation through social media in the 21st century. The subsequent corruption of the term “fake news” by the single most prolific producer of actual fake news only made things worse. The easily understood distinction and division of fictional stories about actual historical events has is no longer so well facilitated among a society in which absolutely false narratives are understood by massive chunks o the population to be true secret history. Yes, it is a historical fact that in late September of 1938 a devastating skidded across of New England, leaving 700 people dead in its wake and claiming the homes of more than 60,000 people.

Did two giraffes actually survive the Great Hurricane of 1938 on a ship?

And, yes, once again, this part of the story is one-hundred percent verifiable fact. The giraffes were actually named Patches and Lofty and after surviving the tumultuous trip across the sea that saw their transport sail smack dab into a hurricane, the animals did indeed make the cross-country to the new home waiting for them at the San Diego Zoo. Even the makeshift vehicle charged with making the unlikely journey described in the novel looked pretty much in real life as it is so described. Also true is that the trip became a media sensation that was followed by millions of curious newspaper readers and radio listeners across the country.

Is Woodrow Wilson Nickel an actual historical person?

And it is at this point that the fiction of the novel begins to intervene in the non-fictional historical record. Although the author succeeds in creating a character in Woodrow Wilson Nickel that definitely seems like someone who might have actually existed, he is entirely invented. In reality, it was San Diego’s zookeeper Charley Smith and his driver Ed Seuss who were charged with getting the giraffes from one side of America to the complete opposite side safe and sound. While there is certainly a fascinating and worthwhile tale to be told that relies solely upon the actual experiences of Smith and Seuss, the events which befall their fictional doppelgangers in the book are creation of the imagination rather than the historical record.