The Merriam- Webster dictionary defines fiction as “something invented from the imagination or feigned; an invented story.” In Michael Ondaatje’s “author’s note” from his novel Anil’s Ghost, he labels his work as a “fictional work” (Ondaatje 1) because he invented the characters and the events that occurred. However, his novel is set during a true “political time and historical moment,” (Ondaatje 1) which is the Sri Lankan Civil War. While he did create the characters, he did not create the war. His work may have been heavily inspired by the “similar events that took place” Ondaatje 1). To tell his story, he uses an omniscient narrative style, but provides the character of Anil to serve as his protagonist. Anil is a woman who originally lived …show more content…
In the Sri Lankan Civil War, the three sides were the LTTE, JVP and the government. However, in Anil’s Ghost, Ondaatje refers to the groups as the separatist guerillas, the insurgents and the government respectively. According to Ryan Mowat, an author published in the Journal for Postcolonial Writing, using different names for the groups “instead of their well-known names betrays a reluctance to engage in the war.” In writing about the Sri Lankan Civil War, his goal is not to point out one side as being the “right” side. At one point of his novel, Sarath says, “What we’ve got here is unknown extrajudicial executions mostly. Perhaps by the insurgents, or by the government or the guerilla separatists. Murders committed by all sides” (18). Ondaatje shows that all people involved in the war are capable of violence, and all share an equal role in the destruction of humanity and the Sri Lankan country. According to Janet West, a professor of English, “Readers get a very clear sense of the danger and horror, but not a clear sense of where the violence is coming from” (West). Thus, because Ondaatje does not identify the perpetrators of the violence, he does not criticize any one side of the war, but rather war
It is narrative because the author is recounting the stories of Christopher and Omar Khadr with an overall message/ lesson to end the essay.
As opposed to fiction literature, nonfiction writing is not traditionally viewed as literary Carl Perkins held this common viewpoint. I believe that any piece of literature that is written using techniques to convey a story or produce an emotional response within the reader is literary. Based on the book The Witches by Stacy Schiff I believe that nonfiction writing can be literary. In her book Schiff uses figurative language, gives vivid descriptions of the setting and people, and includes details that invoke sympathy for individuals within the book which are all elements used in fiction writing to create a story.
The genre fiction brings the audience into a new experience they have never experienced before in their lives. It introduces different types of people and places one can only imagine. A fiction uses fantasy as a way to reel us into a story as if we, the audience, are part of it. In which it can have an effect on our memory because the brain uses only bits of pieces of information from our memory to tell a story we want to believe. In his novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses fiction as a way to make Vietnam seem like a fantasy. He uses beautiful imagery, almost as if it is a fairytale, to capture the reader’s attention. He wants the reader’s to feel and see Vietnam from his vision, as more than just a war; he
Is it possible for a fictional novel to have the characteristic elements to make the reader believe that it is nonfiction? In the novel, Bleachers by John Grisham, we witness a disoriented former high school all-star quarterback make a return to his hometown after many years as he tries to figure out the feelings he has for his former Coach. The novel takes place in a small town called Messina, where the biggest events to happen are high school football on a Friday night. Other than Spartan football, the small populated, Messina does not have much going for them besides hearing about the latest news and gossip spread with the locals. Neely Crenshaw is the main character focused in the story. A once high school hero for breaking quarterback records and accumulating wins for the Spartans, decides whether if it is right to keep a grudge or be thankful from his passing coach, Eddie Rake. Eddie Rake is the reason why Spartan football was put on the map. His intense and unorthodox practice turned students into actual Spartans of football. He is also the reason many former Spartan football players have returned, including Neely because he has been in severe condition due to cancer. As the players reminisce on realistic events and moments of state games, they also await for the lights to shut off on Rake’s Field. The believable context of this fictional novel has a convincing setting, theme, characters, and events that make readers believe the possibility in real life.
While fiction deals with things, people and situations which have never existed, it may very well be inspired by real factual data. A history professor might recommend his students to use a fictional novel in order to get better insight regarding a situation. History records facts, not feelings. Fiction might present feelings and therefore allow the history student to understand the impact of happenings and to grasp the humanity which lies behind the factual data. Chatos story might be fictional, yet it is safe to assume that many Chatos have really existed and still exist. Statistic data and factual recordings may be insightful, that being said we might state that fiction serves history as an emotional
Michael F. Holt, in his article The Political Divisions That Contributed to Civil War, argued the American Civil War was caused by the breakdown of the two-party political system, which generated a local loss of faith in the entire political system, justifying the creation of a new political system in the South. It was the agency of individuals attempting to solve their political grievances. While Bruce Levine, in his article The Economic Divisions That Contributed to Civil War, maintained unresolvable economic divisions between North and South made the Civil War inevitable, as the two different economies could not indefinitely coexist. While the conflicting economies of the North and the South played a major role in fashioning the war,
Fiction as we know it today is considered to be a relatively new genre compared to poetry and drama. The tradition of fiction started with myth and legend and allegory. But the fictional characters in these imaginary worlds were mostly one-dimensional abstractions, personified as Love, Greed, War, or even Faith. The evolution from allegory to novel (and short story), from the sermon about an abstraction in human guise to the story of the individual whose personal experience might have universal application, took a long time.
America's bloodiest and most deadly battle was The American Civil War. America was never the same after the civil war. America changed and became a different nation. The civil war is noted as one of the most meaningful, impacting, and important events in America’s history. The Civil War was fought between the northern and the southern states. However, its impact was felt by the entire nation politically, economically, and socially. This war cost over 600,000 lives and divided the nation.
A fact based story are stories about events that really happened and people who actually existed.
...every country with the similar circumstances and not only in Sri Lanka. The experience of civil war is reconstructed in destinies of main characters – everyone of them has his personal tragedy and deals with it the way he can. And when neither the executioner nor the victim can be identified, it becomes important to give the identity to at least one of the murdered. It has to be named, and the problem has to be named, too. Through the historical situation the author tries to show us the necessity of personal choice in the times when there is no choice for the nation or the whole country. Anil’s ghost is many different ghosts – ghost of innocent people, who disappeared or died, ghost of the past, which has to be dealt with; ghost of Sarath, who finally becomes a martyr. And these ghosts don’t seem to be Anil’s only. In some reasons they belong to each other.
To introduce the conflict of this story, Danticat recounts the public execution of two rebels, Numa and Drouin, by the Haitian government. In doing so,
In conclusion, the Sniper is, interestingly, a complete contradiction in himself. He is both experienced and amateur, cold and emotional, lusting after war and hating it, self-assured and vulnerable, and logical and mad. This stark paradox may create much of the inner conflict that goes on within the Sniper, and also reflects the outer conflict of the Irish war- a war where both sides are essentially opposing parts of the same whole.
... "The Woman Warrior as a Search for Ghosts", Sato examines Kingston's symbolic use of the ghost figure as a means of approaching the dramatic structure of the text and appreciating its thematic search for identity amidst an often-paradoxical bicultural setting.
In the Dictionary of Literary Terms, Harry Shaw states, "In effective narrative literature, fictional persons, through characterization, become so credible that they exist for the reader as real people." (1) Looking at Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (2) and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (3) the reader will find it difficult to make this definition conform to Moll and Behn's narrator. This doesn't mean that Defoe's and Behn's work is 'ineffective', but there is indeed a difficulty: it is the claim of truth. Defoe in his preface states, "The Author is here suppos'd to be writing her own History." (Moll Flanders, p. 1) and Behn claims, "I was myself an eye-witness to a great part, of what you will find here set down, and what I could not be witness of, I received from the mouth of the chief actor in this history, the hero himself, (...)" (Oroonoko, 75)
However, this does not mean that it cannot be based on fiction, it can be out of any category. According to Jami Gold (2014), in “What makes a story believable” that the writer should make sure that the premise is plausible within the limits of the genre’s expectation. Meaning that in every genre, there is a certain level that the writer should live up to. For example, if the story was based on science fiction, the concept is definitely untrue, but the trick lies on the inside. Let the reader feel the emotions of the characters, show the inner dialogue of the protagonist, set a detailed scene where the reader can imagine what is happening clearly, remove any confusion that may cause the reader to get out of context. In the article, “How novelists can make unbelievable stories feel real”, C.S Lakin writes that characters should be wholly believable so that the unbelievable element won’t cause the reader in disbelieving the story. So, in brief, as a rule, genuine characters and a well-defined atmosphere are important for the novel’s