The Reality of Fiction

Fiction is just one way someone can express his or her thoughts and ideas through false or made up material. We experience fiction from the beginning of our childhood by stories that excite us into believing or imagining something. The first books I read when I was a child taught me how to explore my imagination and widen my creativity. Fiction lets literature be less boring and brings out someone’s true originality. Although fiction is sometimes more of an entertaining approach to literature, it still allows us to learn and grow our minds into many new ideas.

I haven’t appreciated fiction as much as I should until now. As a kid and in school, I felt like I was forced to read something just because. I thought of it as more of work than fun. Later on in my high school days, I realized that reading fiction is more than I assumed. It allows us to explore our imagination that we wouldn’t be able to explore in our own lives. It helps us understand symbols or connections that we would have never noticed before. I started to really appreciate fiction literature when I read The Great Gatsby. I looked past it being an assignment and started to lose myself in the story. Symbols like the “green light” and the “eyes looking down on the town” made me think. It made me understand that fiction has the ability to throw in these connections because it’s a source outside of reality. These types of elements made it easier to explore the world outside of ours and think in ways we would never have before. Just like the story of “The Minister’s Black Veil”, it made us think and examine what we thought was going on. Because we didn’t experience it or we know it’s not real, we can think and infer however we want too. Father Hooper states, “What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful?” (Hawthorne 59). We don’t necessarily know exactly why Hooper is wearing the veil or why everyone is so against it, but we can assume why. Because I assumed why all these events happened, it brings together connections and links that we would never have been able to explore before. These connections are the fact that he’s wearing it for the people’s benefit and not for himself. Because of this story, we can relate it to our everyday lives that are able to teach us lessons or just show us something we might have never thought actually happened. Whenever I read something like The Great Gatsby or “The Minister’s Black Veil”, it helps me connect my life to it and capture past or future events that can experience something like it.

Like a lot of people, I read fiction to escape reality. Fiction allows you to take place in someone else’s world and experience what they are going through. Sometimes it just feels right to leave our world of reality for periods of time whether it’s because we need a break or just feel like it. Having fiction allows us to refresh our minds and recharge into something else. “Hunters in the Snow” is a perfect example of the type of fiction I like to step outside of reality. This story has more of a humorous side that feels like it could actually happen in real life. I can picture Tub getting made fun of because friends do that to each other all the time. Frank asks, “Tub, have you ever been really in love?” (Wolff 345). Although these characters aren’t real you feel like they are. No matter how unconventional Franks love for the babysitter is, we try to understand his emotions and they become our own. We start to feel the same emotions as the characters and that is what allows us to connect so well with the story. The Harry Potter series are a perfect example of escaping reality. No matter how crazy magic and witchcraft seems we all wish we had the chance to go to Hogwarts. These are the types of fiction that I love. Ones where I can stop thinking about my world and think of someone else’s that allows me to dream and imagine things I would never have before.

An important aspect of fiction is the characters and where the story is taking place. This is crucial to a good story because it has to make sure the story is well rounded, but also that the audience reading it will appreciate it. I don’t have a particular time or character that I like reading about. I like exploring new settings and characters. It gives me the chance to see different sides of situations or backgrounds. For example, The Scarlet Letter is a perfect example of a time period that we’re not use too. Although we’re not as familiar with the language or setting in the story, we still can capture the purpose of the story and what it means. Hester exclaims, “Thy Heavenly Father sent thee!” (Hawthorne 93). Even though we don’t communicate like this anymore, the language the characters use makes us feel like we’re in the story with them. If Hawthorne used language that we would say today, it wouldn’t make sense. For example, we would use less proper wording and the slang that we picked up over the years. Making a story make sense to the reader is key because without it, we wouldn’t connect with the fiction literature. Although fiction isn’t true, we still have to believe in it so we can explore what it has to offer. I like having the option to read different types of fiction because it allows me to think of the world I live in today differently. No matter what characters or setting is being written, each provides a unique and stimulating way to fiction literature.

As I continue to grow up and understand more, I appreciate why fiction is so important. As a little girl, I never realized the purpose of the stories I read and why they can be important to my life even though they’re not real. But even though they aren’t necessarily real, it doesn’t mean they’re not significant. Fiction is a way of thinking outside the box and capturing ideas in your head that bring out your creativity. What I think might be different from what someone else thinks and that’s what’s great about fiction.

Work Cited

Fitzgerald, F S. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest

Association, 1984. Print.

S. Gwynn and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Minister’s Black Veil. Fiction. Ed. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2014. 47-59. Print.

Wolff, Tobias. Hunters in The Snow. Fiction. Ed. R. S. Gwynn. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson

Education, 2014. 335-49. Print.