Alexis RichardsProfessor Mitchell ENGL-1020-C0313 March 2018Fiction Essay A fiction is a work of literature that has an imaginative narrative typically including imaginary figures, mythical creatures, or anything made up by the narrator. Fictions can be in any form of literary work. For example, poems, short stories, novels, or any literary text that contains the seven elements of fiction. The seven elements, plot, character, theme, setting, style, symbol, and point of view, are usually incorporated in a fictional narrative, and can easily be identified by the reader. These seven elements are the key components of a fictional text. Although a fiction may not always follow these seven elements, it is typically how fictions are identified.
Often the reader can recognize what elements are stressed the most and the elements the fiction is lacking. Fictions can also be written describing one’s culture, futuristic happenings, or even supernatural characters. “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” was written by Leslie Marmon Silko who grew up on the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. She explains, “We are mixed blood-Laguna, Mexican, White……All those languages, all those ways of living are combined, and we live somewhere on the fringes of all three” (241). This introduction of the author that is presented before the story gives the reader an idea and assumption that the story incorporates different cultures. The numerous symbols that are presented in the story is how the culture is identified by the reader. “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” differed from a basic fiction text. The three sections that the story was broken into allowed the reader to distinguish the time of day that the events were happening.
During the different times of day, the author presents a different culture to the reader which goes back to the author’s introduction. This story was very interesting; however, it did not have an actual plot where there were problems leading up to a climax, nor did it have a very clear trail till the end of the story. Silko incorporates various religious and cultural practices into this story. In the first section of the story Silko states, “Before they wrapped the old man, Leon took a piece of string out of his pocket and tied a small gray feather in the old man’s long white hair” (242). This presents to the reader different practices of Native American practices.
Louise also had something on her mind that she explained to Leon, “About the priest sprinkling holy water for Grandpa. So he won’t be thirsty” (243). This exemplifies how the Christian religion intertwines with their customs. The holy water and the priest are two components of the Christian religion that are incorporated in the rituals for Teofilo’s burial. After Leon and Louise’s conversation, Silko narrated that, “Leon stared at the new moccasins that Teofilo had made for the ceremonial dances in the summer” (243). Silko presented various aspects of the Christian religion as well as Native American’s rituals in their formal burial ceremony for Teofilo.
This fiction gives numerous examples of symbols from different cultures that reflects on the author’s prologue before the story. Silko’s fiction differed from the others because although it was a fiction it related to her and her past.In contrast to “The Man To Send Rain Clouds” Ray Bradbury writes more from the imagination and futuristic belief, rather than past experiences of his life.
Ray Bradbury, the author of “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”, published his first science fiction book as a high school student. Sam Weller’s article explains Bradbury by stating, “Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think. His more than five hundred published works — short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse — exemplify the American imagination at its most creative.” This science fiction is a futuristic story exemplifying how life will be when man has destroyed or been destroyed by war, disaster, or sickness and technology takes over. In the story, all the technology continues to work without the assistance of any human or living entity. The whole story is ironic considering the house is still acting if someone lived there, but people only existed through their silhouettes. This story also ironically relates the society today.
For example, self-driving cars, automatic vacuum cleaners, and google dots where humans demand something and technology does it. Bradbury explains that, “The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big small, servicing, attending in choirs” (44). In this sentence Bradbury is explaining the technology that exist in the house and the duties they are fulfilling. From Bradbury’s perspective machinery had taken over and was the only thing left. The irony of the story, “There Will Come Soft Rains,” is very easily identified as the technology continues to fulfill their purposes as the humans being die out. Basically, stating that the machinery doesn’t need human assistance to complete the task that it was designed for.
The poem within the story describes how happy nature will be when man has destroyed himself, but his technology will go on without him. The rest of the city had burned and only ashes, silhouettes of the humans, and technology remained. Radiation lingers in the air, yet nature continues to live on in a mechanical form. The dog being hurt, sick, and muddy and the mice cleaning him up represents how the technology is taking the role of human day to day duties. This leads the reader to foreshadow that the destruction of all living organisms is about to occur. The climax of this story is an unsettling feeling, but that was Bradbury’s intentions. The climax begins after the dog’s death, and the sun comes out revealing that all the other existence had been destroyed.
In the end, a bottle falls over in the house as a wind gust comes through. As a result, the house catches fire and the cleaning mice are unable to stop the house from burning, but a gentle sprinkler allows rain to fall to slowly put out the fire. The voices in the home are completely mute, but nature does not seem to care as it will yet continue without the assistance of any living being. Bradbury intends to leave the message to the reader that a man and his technology will slowly destroyed themselves.Science fiction and magic realism are different types of fiction, but they are alike in many ways. They both have day-to-day approaches until something abnormal or unexpected occurs and changes the outlook on the whole story. Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote fictions with an imperious output.
He earned a mythical reputation matching the term magical realism, a literacy term used to describe the intertwining of fantasy and actual realism. His stories seemed realistic until a majestic entity was introduced to the reader. His supernatural approach to his story is quite interesting.
His stories begin with an everyday life for people until a resplendent creature or entity comes in and typically creates the conflict. The story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is also a magic realism. The story evaluates the human response to those who are weak, dependent, and different. Pelayo the main character discovers an old man who appears to have enormous wings. Pelayo and his wife, Elisenda, carefully examine the creature, looking for clues to its identity, it responds to their questions in a tongue that they cannot identify. They suspect that he is a castaway from a ship. Pelayo and his wife fail to communicate with the old man because they are unable to speak his language.
The two of them bring him home and reside him in their chicken coops where he is treated as a prisoner. The couple began charging neighbors and visitors a fee to view the old man. They treated him as if he was a circus act and neglected the fact that he could be human and have feelings just as they did. The irony of the story was that the old man looked just like they did except for the fact he had very large wings. They felt like since he had those wings there was no way that he could be anything like they were, so they treated him like an animal. They believed that the old man would be able to survive like an animal simply because he had wings. The priest got wind of the supernatural creature that was referred to as an angel for a short period of time and went to visit him.
He was very uneasy and cautious to identify the man, so he wrote a letter to the pope. During this time, Pelayo and his wife were still charging fees for anyone to see the old man. They eventually earned enough revenue where they were able to purchase a bigger home, where they would take the old man with them. Where he only becomes a nuisance and a burden to the two of them. His large wings made it very difficult to be in a house, and his feeble wings disable him to fly. After numerous failed attempts the old man discovers how to fly. When the old man discovers he can fly it symbolizes the freedom of someone who has been confined and set free from a bad situation that they’ve been in for a long period of time.
Marquez explained, “She kept watching him even when she was through cutting the onions, and she kept on watching until it was no longer possible for her to see him, because then he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea”(499). They referred to as an annoyance just because they were unable to communicate or relate with the old man, so they believed he was not worthy as they were. Marquez wrote this story as an eye opener. Just because someone looks differently, speaks differently, or acts differently doesn’t mean that they are any less of a person, and that regardless of looks or size others should be treated how they would like to be treated.
In conclusion, fictions can be written in any form or over any subject. All three of the fictions have at least one element that was stressed, and easily depicted by the reader. The three fictions were not alike in subject at all, but they all typically followed the elements of fiction. Some fictions such as The Man to Send the Rain Clouds are wrote based on the authors past as well as their interest.
Where as some fictions are about the supernatural world, and some are about futuristic happenings. Most fictions have all seven elements, but they also leave the reader a message at the end. Although some of the messages are hard to depict, most authors intend for relevant message to be delivered to the reader.Works Cited PageBradbury, Ray. August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains.
Literature for Composition, edited by Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, William E. Cain and Cheryl Nixon, 11th ed., Pearson, 2018, 1340-1389.Marquez, Gabriel. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. Literature for Composition, edited by Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, William E.
Cain and Cheryl Nixon, 11th ed., Pearson, 2018, 1340-1389.Silko, Leslie. The Man to Send Rain Clouds. Literature for Composition, edited by Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, William E. Cain and Cheryl Nixon, 11th ed.
, Pearson, 2018, 1340-1389.Weller, Sam. “About Ray Bradbury.” About Ray Bradbury, www.raybradbury.com/about.html
