Did these accounts help give “shape and focus” to reality more so than newsreels alone could? If so, will these works hold more “lasting significance” than bare factual accounts of the-same persons and events? I think anyone who has seen these films would answer all three questions affirmatively. Or consider The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars. Both films, and the novels from which they were adapted, are ‘pure fantasy.

Yet both teem with symbolism and metaphor relating to life’s journey, the human spirit, and our hopes, dreams, and ambitions-in short, the human experience. Therein lies the reason for their lasting significance.

In sum, without prior factual accounts, fictional works set in historical periods lose much of their meaning. Yet only through the exercise of artistic license can we convey human experience in all is dimensions and thereby fully understand and appreciate life in other times and places. And it is human experience, and not bare facts and figures, that endures in our minds and souls.

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