The Children's Blizzard Analysis

David Laskin’s The Children’s Blizzard explains the devastating force of an intense blizzard, which caught several people unprepared, and it tells the tragic stories of these people. On January 12, 1888 a massive blizzard struck the center of North America, killing between 250 to 500 people and affecting thousands. There were many factors that made this blizzard exceptionally deadly. Many farmers and children who were outside were unprepared to deal with any cold conditions, “a day when children had raced to school with no coats or gloves and farmers were far from home doing chores they had put off during the long siege of cold” (Laskin 2). The reason for this is because they had no idea the blizzard was coming. In this time the weather forecasts

One moment the sky was growing a little grey, and the next thing you know you were surrounded by snow and stunning winds. The main reason this blizzard was unmistakingly deadly was because of its powerful winds, which would blow snow and ice into people’s faces, and the chilling temperatures of 40 below. People caught outside would have their nostrils and eyelids sealed shut by ice, their skin would tear open if they rubbed the ice off too much, and eventually their limbs would become frozen and lifeless. To sum it up, the people caught outside were at the mercy of the storm’s relentless force. David Laskin’s The Children’s Blizzard shows many acts of selflessness. Selflessness means, steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. However, selflessness has some connotative definitions as well such as: death, sacrifice, heroism, protecting, bravery, endurance, or

Fred Weeks was an eighteen year old boy who was at school when the blizzard hit. Him, the other students, and May Hunt, the teacher, tried to stay in the school as long as possible before their fuel for a fire ran out. Once this happened May Hunt knew they would have to seek shelter in a near house owned by the Hinner’s. The class would have to cross a bridge to get over the gully, but with the poor visibility that bridge would be much harder to locate. Fred first shows selflessness with his decision to find the bridge so the younger children wouldn’t have to endure the harsh cold as long. “Fred volunteered to go scouting. If he could find the bridge, he’d clear a path and then come back for the others. Fred was gone for half an hour while the rest of them stood around the dying fire” (Laskin 161). This action shows selflessness very well because Fred could have easily stayed behind and had someone else do the job instead, but instead he immediately volunteers to go into a storm that he could get lost and die in within minutes of exposure. In fact, Fred actually withstood the storm longer than he had to. Once he found the bridge he tried to make sure he would remember the way when he would guide the rest of children to safety, “he had walked back and forth between the bridge not once but twice” (Laskin 161). He could have just gone back forth