Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Arguing Through Fiction

Fiction can be used as a form of public argument that is just as affective as nonfiction. Usually when I’m reading a work of fiction I don’t think about the message the author is trying to tell me or that he’s advancing an argument at all. However one of the main reasons why authors write fiction is to make an argument, whether readers know it or not. Overall the genre has many advantages for someone trying to make an argument. It gives the writer complete control over what to include in her argument and lets her create any story she wants to support it. With nonfiction writers don’t have this kind of freedom. Nonfiction requires the writer to report facts and analyze them objectively. She is faced with the dilemma of choosing what to report and how to report it while trying to give her own opinion on the situation(s). Fiction removes these obstacles and allows the writer to make up any story she wants without fear of misrepresenting any factual events.

Fiction also lets writers advance opinions within contexts that they are familiar with. For example in “Invisible Man”, Ralph Ellison makes arguments about identity, power, and democracy using a character that he would understand well: a young black male living in the American south and New York during the 1920s and 30s. Many writers create characters that are reflections of themselves, which emphasizes the fact that they are speaking directly to their audience.

Fiction also exposes readers to arguments through characters they can identify with. People enjoy reading about characters that they have some things in common with, which is not always the case with nonfiction. In the readers’ minds the characters are more believable when they share traits with actual people. However, one of the drawbacks of fiction is that the characters may not seem “real” enough to the audience and any arguments the author is trying to make get ignored.

I think fiction is an excellent medium for public argument. It has advantages for both writers and readers who can advance and learn about issues that affect their real lives. The writer can create any type of story she wants to deliver her arguments without the restraints that are present in nonfiction writing.

2 comments:

  1. When reading a fiction novel there is a point in the book where it all of a sudden hits you what point the author is trying to make. I feel it is usually around the 3/4 mark, where you have picked up all of the themes and have fully engaged in the text and feel a connection with the character. You look back on all of the themes and start piecing them together realizing they all revolve around one central argument that the author is trying to make. It is a pretty incredible moment in the novel when you feel as if you have solved every standing question around you, just because you figure out the argument.

    I recently read "The World According to Garp" by John Irving, and I felt as if there were so many issues going on at once for a short while, until all of a sudden it hit me that each revolves around one central idea: relationships. The book focuses on all different types of relationships in a person's life, whether it be a father, wife, child, friend, teacher, stranger, etc. Each story and theme make one central argument: A person needs to work hard at their relationships regardless if it is a friend or your wife. The effort matters.

    There are no limits in fiction. This gives it a power unlike any other text. The author is able to mold and sculpt the text into any form or shape that they want, and that gives them the power to create any argument they are making. I agree with you when you say that authors write to make certain arguments, so true.

    Ralph Ellison is writing "Invisible Man" at a time when race was a prevalent issue in society, even before all of the civil rights movements, and he directed the text to an audience still open to the Jim Crow laws and other issues connected to race at the time, but his argument is timeless. He used the background and setting to help his argument in other ways and give it a personal touch, but you can still apply arguments about identity and race to todays society.

    Because the author is able to let a story take any form, it has this affect on the audience whether they realize it or not. The positive thing is that the author does not need to use a real story to make their point, so the audience is able to get lost in this fictional world knowing that this situation is not real, which almost makes it even more believable. But at the same time, this can hinder the argument the author is trying to make by the mere fact it is fiction and not reality. One can get lost in this fictional world and it can be hard to distinguish between the made up stories and what you are supposed to take from the text. However, I think it is rare to really miss the point of a book.

    As I mentioned above, there are no limits in fiction. It goes only as far as your imagination will take you, and as far as the author pushes you away or towards reality, in connection to their argument. Sometimes a made up story is the best way to try an teach someone something. Is that not what our parents did with us when growing up and they wanted to teach us a lesson?

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  2. Before enrolling in this class, I never thought of fiction as a public argument. In fact, I never thought too hard about public argument in general. In the past few years, the majority of the fictional books that I have read have been for class, and in my mind I was simply reading them so that I could achieve a high grade. However, after reading Ellison’s Invisible Man, my eyes have been opened to the world of fiction as a public argument. I didn’t realize how fiction can be so well crafted, down to each word choice, to make an argument so compelling. Certainly, I didn’t even pick up on all of the purposeful word choices that Ellison had made a part of his novel. I didn’t even realize until you mentioned it that Ellison was perhaps creating a reflection of himself in his novel. You state that “[m]any writers create characters that are reflections of themselves, which emphasizes the fact that they are speaking directly to their audience.” This is a great observation. One advantage for an author using fiction as a forum for public argument is the ethos that emerges. By creating a character, the author can also manipulate the ethos. A well known author may already have a reputation with his or her readers. In order to get a public argument across, an author may find that an ethos slightly different than their own may be most effective. By creating a fictional character to present the author’s argument, the author is able to dodge any reputation that they may have. This lets the ethos emerge directly from the situation (the character in the book) instead of emerging through reputation. This can be a great advantage for authors creating fictional works.

    -Jaclyn E

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