Relationship Between Fiction and Non-fiction

Fiction and non-fiction are both very intriguing types of writing to read. Many people view them as total opposites. The fiction stories are usually very funny and made up, but they can be very informative if put in

the right context. Non-fiction stories can be used to tell readers of personal losses or gains.

One can take a piece of non-fiction writing and place it within a fiction text’s context, which makes the writing serve a new purpose. By placing non-fiction into fiction text, the writing is transformed from a piece of analysis into a tool of the fiction’s text. There are many instances where stories are written with a good mix of fiction and non-fiction. When stories are written with a bit of each type of writing they are more informational and use more examples. Even though the two are perceived as opposites, they actually go hand in hand when trying to get a point across.

There are times in fiction writing where there are references to non-fiction ideas. Some writers do this for a comparison of things that aren’t possible. There are many novels, short stories, fables, fairy tales, films, comics, interactive fiction, animation, and video games that can include or reference factual occurrences. Fiction is the written expression of, reflection upon, and/or interpretation of observed, perceived, or recollected experience just like non-fiction. An example of this would be in the fiction story “Lottery” that tells of people going to a lottery and the “winner” gets killed by stones. The reason this story related to non-fiction is because it described the occurrences in towns in previous years.

In non-fiction writing there is usually a lot of facts placed within the story’s text. There are a lot of other times where fiction is included in the non-fiction work because of a similarity between the idea the fiction has and the one nonfiction has. The non-fiction stories use factual references such as “Oh, this is the wrong bitch?” (141) and “Young Franklin Deland Roosevelt attended Groton, as did boys with last names like DuPont, Morgan and Harriman” (143) to give emotion and to make the story sound good by having a famous person involved. Non-fiction stories usually relate to personal issues such as losses or gains just as fiction uses humor to represent opinions. There is also the fact that both fiction and non-fiction try to resemble real-life occurrences to help stop or encourage others to do certain things.

The way that fiction and non-fiction are expressed really helps people understand concepts. When people read a story that has a mix of the two types of writing, they are able to learn from other people’s doings and sometimes get a laugh also. When fiction is placed within the text of the non-fiction it helps with the understanding of the text. The way that fiction writing can be used to describe real life occurrences is interesting to many people. It is usually very important for people to read both fiction and non-fiction texts to understand the similarities and differences between both.