News of the World by Paulette Jiles Book Review

News of the World by Paulette Giles is about a white man returning a 10-year-old girl named Johanna to her German family.  She had been abducted and then abandoned by the Kiowa tribe.  The girl clearly no longer shows the behavior of a white settler child, but the habits and behaviors of the Kiowa tribe.  She does not want to be returned to her German family, but the Kiowa sold her to other whites so she cannot go back to them.  She tries once and is shot at by the Kiowa.  This girl, Johanna, is caught between two worlds, not being really white, but not being really Kiowa, either.  The author mentions two other children who had been captured by Native Americans - Cynthia Ann Parker and Temple Friend - and says these two were also rescued but had a hard time adjusting to life with their relatives.  The book suggests the two children had such a hard time returning that they starved themselves to death.  The article I read about Cynthia Ann Parker reports a different story.  I will compare the account in the novel with the historical account I found.

News of the World is different from the historical account I read because the historical account says Cynthia Ann Parker died ten years after she was rescued.  News of the World says she starved herself to death.  This is not likely since she lived with her relatives in the white world for ten years following her rescue.  The author of News of the World writes,  "Cynthia Parker had starved herself to death when she was returned to her white relatives"(124).  This shows the author reported something different from the historical account.  In the her historical account, Hacker writes, "Though she is said in some sources to have died in 1864, the 1870 census enrolled her and gave her age as forty-five"(1).  This shows that the author has evidence that Cynthia Ann did not die until at least 1870.   Earlier in the article, it says Cynthia was rescued in 1860.   That means she lived for 10 years after being rescued.  It is unlikely she starved herself to death over 10 years between 1860 and 1870.  The historical article shows a different account from the novel.

Though there are differences between them, the novel and the historical account also agree.  They both report the name of the girl accurately and report that she was captured as a child by Native American people.  The historical account gives the full  name of Cynthia Ann Parker and her age.  Hacker wrote in the historical account, " When she was nine or ten her family moved to Central Texas and built Fort Parker . . .On May 19, 1836, a large force of Comanche warriors accompanied by Kiowa and Kichai allies attacked the fort and killed several of its inhabitants. During the raid the Comanches seized five captives, including Cynthia Ann"(1).  This proves that Cynthia was nine or ten and that her middle name was "Ann."  The historical report and the novel agree on the name and age of the child.

Another thing they agree on is the difficulty returned captives faced in adjusting to a long-forgotten former lifestyle.  In Giles's novel, she mentions Cynthia when referring to the difficulties Johanna will face retuning to family after being a captive.  Her character, the Captain, speaks about Johanna when he says, "As long as they were traveling she was content and happy and the world held great interest for her but Captain Kidd wondered what would happen when she found she was never to wander over the face of the earth again, when she was to be confined forever to her Leonberger relatives in a square house that could not be broken down and packed on a travois.  Cynthia Parker had starved herself to death when she was returned to her white relatives.  Temple Friend did, too"(123-124).  This shows that Johanna will have a tough transition from the wandering life she is used to and the settled life of her relatives. The Captain compares Johanna's situation with Cynthia Parker's, showing that Johanna might be just as desperate. Giles goes on to write that other returned captives had become "alcoholics, solitaires, strange people.  They were all odd, the returned captives. All peculiar with minds oddly formed, never quite one thing or another"(124).  This illustrates the struggles that captives had figuring out where they fit in.  The historical account says the same thing.  Hacker says of Cynthia, "But she was never reconciled to living in Anglo society and made several unsuccessful attempts to flee to her Comanche family"(1).  This proves Cynthia never felt comfortable in her new society and tried to run away. Both the novel and the historical article make it clear that captives returned to their families had a very difficult time.

To wrap things up, this comparison of the novel to the historical article has revealed two similarities and one difference.  The facts of Cynthia's death were not accurate in the novel, but Giles was likely showing how the Captain was relying on hearsay as he considered what might happen to Johanna.  Hearsay can influence our thinking and our choices.  Maybe even there is even some truth in it.  Though Cynthia Ann did not starve herself to death, she did have a similarly terrible time adjusting.  In News of the World, Giles's explanation of how difficult it was for captives to return to their original families was on point.  The historical article confirms this sad state of affairs.  It would not be too difficult to believe people might starve themselves to death given such emotional stress.  People still experience this stress - trying to figure out where to fit in when one is so different from surrounding people.  News of the World, though not factually accurate in the matter of the death of Cynthia Ann Parker, nevertheless accurately described the emotional difficulties of captives trying to adjust to rescue.