Kavosi1 Kavosi3 Mohammadhassan Kavosi Professor Rooney Paper one LIT 2010 Fiction Is Often Truer Than Nonfiction By considering the greatest movies or television series in the history, there are some movies that are based on narrative novels. The likes of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and list goes on. This mesmerizing fact is a good piece of evidence to argue that fiction stories have found a very special place among people. However, some people argue that narrative stories only present entertainment to people and since the stories are unreal, audience may not perceive the main context of the stories. But the opposition group assert that fiction stories are often truer than nonfiction. Storytelling is a way of stating a fact or educating people in a way that the fact often being told indirectly through an enjoyable and grasping story. However, real stories are not always capable of delivering the desire fact that a writer intend to expose for many reasons. Hence, sometimes writers use narration to create a story in order to deliver a message to the readers. Due to the vast capacity of narration, writers are open to adjust the stories to form their desire format. However, distancing from reality sometimes can result in losing the useful property of stories, which is reveal a fact since they become somehow unbelievable for the readers. Valuable fiction stories normally are the ones that are close enough to reality in order to be believed. The Pigman by Paul Zindel provides a good source to evaluate the statement profoundly. The Pigman is a story of two college students who seem to be fed up of their home and the school environment. They build up a friendship with an old widower Pigman, who had been suffering from depression after the loss of his beloved wife. The story explores various aspects of humans’ live such as death, guilt and Animal love. Fiction Stories are often truer than nonfiction since writers in narrative stories are able to demonstrate a fact or a phenomenon like rites of passage through an appropriate setting, structure, and plot unlike nonfiction stories that facts usually being faded due to the vagueness property of reality. Furthermore, in spite of existence of narration, human senses like grief, guilt and anger cannot be eliminated in fiction. Admittedly, the supreme attribute of fiction literature for a writer, is the freedom of choice in the structure and setting of a piece; meaning that writers can design a tale upon their preferences, and depending on the themes of the tale to underline the facts. Thus, the facts are often more visible in fiction comparing to nonfiction literature. There are techniques such as over-exaggeration that are commonly used to highlight the facts. Regarding to the Pigman story, Zindel intentionally benefits from these techniques throughout the tale. For instance, there some parts in the story as: “I DON’T HAPPEN TO BUY all of Lorraine’s stuff about omens. She tal ...

1. Kavosi1
Kavosi3
Mohammadhassan Kavosi
Professor Rooney
Paper one
LIT 2010
Fiction Is Often Truer Than Nonfiction
By considering the greatest movies or television series in the
history, there are some movies that are based on narrative
novels. The likes of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Harry
Potter and list goes on. This mesmerizing fact is a good piece of
evidence to argue that fiction stories have found a very special
place among people. However, some people argue that narrative
stories only present entertainment to people and since the
stories are unreal, audience may not perceive the main context
of the stories. But the opposition group assert that fiction
stories are often truer than nonfiction. Storytelling is a way of
stating a fact or educating people in a way that the fact often
being told indirectly through an enjoyable and grasping story.
However, real stories are not always capable of delivering the
desire fact that a writer intend to expose for many reasons.
Hence, sometimes writers use narration to create a story in
order to deliver a message to the readers. Due to the vast
capacity of narration, writers are open to adjust the stories to
form their desire format. However, distancing from reality
sometimes can result in losing the useful property of stories,
which is reveal a fact since they become somehow unbelievable
for the readers. Valuable fiction stories normally are the ones
that are close enough to reality in order to be believed. The
Pigman by Paul Zindel provides a good source to evaluate the
statement profoundly. The Pigman is a story of two college
students who seem to be fed up of their home and the school
environment. They build up a friendship with an old widower

2. Pigman, who had been suffering from depression after the loss
of his beloved wife. The story explores various aspects of
humans’ live such as death, guilt and Animal love. Fiction
Stories are often truer than nonfiction since writers in narrative
stories are able to demonstrate a fact or a phenomenon like rites
of passage through an appropriate setting, structure, and plot
unlike nonfiction stories that facts usually being faded due to
the vagueness property of reality. Furthermore, in spite of
existence of narration, human senses like grief, guilt and anger
cannot be eliminated in fiction.
Admittedly, the supreme attribute of fiction literature for a
writer, is the freedom of choice in the structure and setting of a
piece; meaning that writers can design a tale upon their
preferences, and depending on the themes of the tale to
underline the facts. Thus, the facts are often more visible in
fiction comparing to nonfiction literature. There are techniques
such as over-exaggeration that are commonly used to highlight
the facts. Regarding to the Pigman story, Zindel intentionally
benefits from these techniques throughout the tale. For instance,
there some parts in the story as: “I DON’T HAPPEN TO BUY
all of Lorraine’s stuff about omens. She talks about me
distorting, but look at her. I mean, she thinks she can get away
with her subliminal twists by calling them omens, but she
doesn’t fool me. The only difference between her fibs and mine
are that hers are eeric-sh’s got a gift for saying things that make
you anxious” (34). In this case, Zindel takes advantage of a
technique known as ‘double narrative’ to reveal various
versions of reality. He discusses a matter through two
characters, John and Lorraine, to have two different approaches
to it. Hence, he built up the story based on these two characters
because he believes that this is the best tactic to talk about the
matter; the feature of fiction in freedom of choice in structure
of the plot has given this opportunity to the author.
(Transition)
Body para2: talk about the vagueness of nonfiction.

3. Body para 3: talk about human sense in fiction focus on
depression and friendship
Conclusion.

4. Literature was based on history in the past. However, authors
started to divert from history and started to write based on
fiction for they were convinced that the genre was truer than
history. Fiction can make one to cornet with the lives of others.
With nonfiction, the lives are similar, and it is not easy to trace
one’s lives for it is connected to many others. However, fiction
literature makes one be entertained and be surprised by how life
is a reality. A good example is a novel Saint Maybe! The novel
follows the life of Ian, who was living a life of responsibility.
In the final scene, Ian tells his family and friends that her wife,
Lucy, was the woman who changed her life. The novel is a
fiction, and it is true that people change each other’s lives every
day. The way it is presented in a fiction literature is what is
important.
Moreover, fiction literature has been considered to be truer that
nonfiction for it enables the reader to be able to register and
absorb the emotion of other people. In one study, participants
were asked to reads selected text randomly from sources such as
Don DeLillo, Smithsonian Magazine, and romance novels. After
reading the texts, they were asked questions which were meant
to analyze how well they can analyze the emotion of others. The
emotion states of the respondents were also analyzed through
the eyes of the respondents. The results of the study proved that
classical fiction was more significant than the others. We can
conclude that it is easier to relate the emotions in a fiction

5. literature than nonfiction literature.
Furthermore, it is true that absolute occurrence can sometimes
not be relevant. A thing or event can occur and happens to be a
total lie and another event may not occur and may turn out to be
truer than the truth. A good example of meditation on the truth
is Tim O’Brien’s novel titled The Things They Carried. O’Brien
was able to give facts of Vietnam War, based on his own
experience to put on what soldiers go through in the war. He
had experienced for he was once a soldier, but chose to use
nonfiction literature and was able to put across his message
effectively (O'Brien, 1998).
In children literature, nonfiction has widely been used to amuse
the children and at the same time teach them how to live
morally. Fantasy has been used everywhere to touch deep inside
the private fantasy. Also, nonfiction allows the adult to escape
the challenges of their ordinary lives and hide in dramas. The
nonfiction literature allows literature to bring to light the urgent
questions in life. The characterization of the characters in the
novel can be analyzed, and a reader can relate to them in the
real world.
The writers who are based on fiction work try as much as
possible to make events and charatcets which are unreal to be
seen and view as being true. Fiction writers have been able to
move and inspire the readers. The writers have been able to give
faith and show that people have an imaginative capability to
stories of other, and not only ourselves. On the other hand, the
nonfiction writer should first collect information to ensure that
they offer information which is as accurate as possible.
However, the errors which are involved in the collection of data
are what makes the truth of the nonfiction work to be
questioned. Data is collected using samples and inferred to the
entire population. In most cased, it does not really reflect the
reality and therefore nonfiction is not as truthful as fiction
work.
Fiction is best in cultivating fantasy and compassion but at its
worst, it provokes schadenfreude and prurience. People are

6. more drawn to the ugly truth. They want to see actual suffering
and humiliation playing out. An example of such work is Mount
Olympus where Larry King stated: “He’s only mortal.” The
readers of the text have said that their lives have been changed
by reading the text. When Oprah Winfrey staged the public
flaying where she stated that Mr. Frey did not go through hell,
the defenses crumbled. A lot of people were following it up, but
what they cared about were the shame of James Frey but not his
redemption
Fiction text and videos have the truth which is intertwined in
between. Let’s take an example of a fictional novel or film,
such as the notebook. The girl had gone to the countryside for
vacation and fell in love with a young man who was living
there. They had a relationship in which showed how much they
loved each other. However, the girl was required to go back to
the city, and this shook their relationship. A lot went through
such as the girl’s mother hiding letters from the boy, and the
boy gave up the love. Towards the end of the film, fate brought
the couple together. In reality, what the film was depicting is
the truth since the hardship and bumps are the same (Sparks &
Bostwick, 2004).
Even if we have discussed and argued that fictional work has
truth in them more than the nonfictional work, we can further
state that they can also contain opinions. Nonfiction work such
as newspaper can have assertions which are false. Moreover, the
nonfiction events, such as real life events and characters as well
as historians have used imagination to suggest the thoughts, and
when they use imagination, they are already using nonfiction
tactics to bring out the truth. However, there has been a thin
line between fiction and nonfiction since novelists have been
using real life events (fiction) and characters who are imagined
(nonfiction).

7. Works Cited
O'Brien, T. (1998). The things they carried: A work of fiction.
New York: Broadway Books.
Sparks, N., & Bostwick, B. (2004). The notebook. New York:
Time Warner AudioBooks.
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King, T., Calver, C. D., & Hoy, H. (1987). The Native in
literature. Toronto: ECW Press.
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