For my second essay I would like to focus on the objective relating to fictional and non-fictional modes of literature. I would like to explore some of the distinct differences and similarities of the two and discuss ways in which they overlap. In James Baldwin’s essay, "No Name In The Street", the reader understands immediately that Baldwin intends to use narrative to provide the overall point of his essay. The story he relates about his old friend and his own now useless suit supports and defines the problem that Baldwin sees facing himself and his own culture. This story is, however, enclosed around the non-fiction world of his thoughts.

Mei Mei Evans uses straight narrative to relate much the same experience as Baldwin’s in her short story "Gussuk". As a minority herself, the protagonist struggles to define her role within a society that is still attempting to maintain its own unique cultural identity. The themes of individual acceptance and social equality are similar between the two pieces, but one uses only partial narrative to make its non-fictional point while the other relates only narrative.

Sometimes the lines between using narrative to create an example of a non-fiction point and straight narrative become blurred. The Book of Exodus uses narrative to relate the flight of the Hebrews out of Egypt. The details of the factual events are related using linear narration, which is similar to Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation. Now while both the story of Exodus and of the Pilgrim’s plight and journey to America do have basis in historical fact the telling of these factual events incorporate many narrative devices. When reading Exodus I must say I found the writing typically biblically dry, but it did have what some may call fictional elements, i.e. biblical miracles. The same can be said for Bradford’s work. His style, while not being exciting or overly romantic, does use hyperbolic and almost cosmic language. The principal men of the expedition and founding of the colony are spoken of in glowing terms and are compared to Saints and Demi-Gods. This type of language requires interpretation and feeling mixed into an accounting of an actual voyage and founding of a colony. While Exodus reads more like a history book than a fictional novel, Bradford’s work reads like a eulogy designed to paint the expedition in the best possible light while also relating the facts of the event. In other words, the non-fiction is interspersed with elements from a fictional work.

One way in which fiction and non-fiction certainly do diverge is in the area of perspective. As seen with Angela’s Ashes, pure narrative allows the author to become anyone he wishes, even himself at three years old. McCourt can narrate his family’s struggle through the innocent eyes of a child and while he could have simply written an essay about the Irish’s resentment of colonization he chose to have his protagonist relate the nightly calls of his drunken father to die for Ireland instead. This scene enacted continuously throughout the book reinforces the Irish thought on their colonization without even mentioning the word. The message is the same, but the method of conveyance is quite different.

Non-fiction can not do what Frank McCourt did in his autobiography as Richard Rodriguez demonstrates with his own. Rodriguez can talk about when he was a child, but because his work is supposed to be completely non-fiction and is set from the beginning as a non-fiction work he can not suddenly revert to childhood to discuss his life at that age. Instead, he is forced to use past tense and remember events from that period. On the other hand, because Rodriguez is writing a non-fiction work about his childhood he can relate that childhood through the eyes of an adult which allows him to write intellectually and with the authority of experience instead of with the innocence of childhood.

I also noticed that non-fiction seems to be able to use a larger canvas to relate the main point of an essay. Mary Gordon writes in her essay, "I Can’s Stand Your Books", "The Italians are Catholic, and the French, and the Spanish: these races are emblems in the popular mind for warm-bloodedness, for sexiness and for romance" (VI 214). This type of sweeping generality usually does not occur within a work of fiction because that work would be centered on a specific event that would illustrate that general point. For instance, Toni Cade Bambara’s short story "The Lesson" uses a day of inner city kids shopping to relate the disparity of economic opportunity between the races and classes. She conveys a large message within the narrative of a single afternoon’s experience.

Also, as I mentioned before she does so by using the voice of a child, something that would not be possible for a non-fiction piece of work.

Obviously much can be said and debated on this topic, but I have just run out of time.