Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126

Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127

In Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm, the 1900 Galveston Hurricane is explored through the perspective of Isaac Cline and those around him affected by the disaster. Isaac serves as the focal point of the novel, allowing readers to experience the events leading up to the disaster through his viewpoint and understanding on hurricanes. As a meteorologist, Isaac studied past hurricanes that had been documented, including the three-part back-to-back hurricanes that ravaged the British naval forces in 1780. In this particular instance, Isaac comments that “clearly hurricanes posed a greater menace than any single nation’s forces” (Larson, 52). Isaac, having studied the destruction and the death tolls brought by hurricanes, clearly understands the potential threat of such storms. In Zhedrick’s post on Faith and Doubt, it is stated that religion is used at the “primary reason for the fire.” This coincides with a description of hurricanes that Larson gives, that hurricanes are “another hazard of venturing upon the sea – acts of God, still, and against which one could do nothing” (Larson, 52). Isaac sets out to predict the activities of hurricanes, to predict these “acts of God.” The dramatic irony comes from the reader knowing that the Galveston Hurricane will occur and that Isaac’s predictions of it not occurring are wrong. Despite his knowledge of a hurricane’s destructive power, he wrongly predicts that even if it strikes, the damage will be minimal.