Fiction and Fact

Fiction and Fact

Fiction stories that people read for everyday leisure are most of the time based off of real life values that are ingrained in our society. Many works of fiction are often, at their core, factual. Fiction consists aspects of life that have been shaped from people to people’s daily interactions and cultural values. Literature works such as romanticism, dark romanticism, and realism all consists elements of life that society holds dearly to. In “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, the believe in superstition is used to develop the violence, evil, and human fallibility triggered by a black cat. Kate Chopin mentions the element of appearance in “Désirées Baby”, presenting the nature of people’s judgemental views based on appearances. “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne further reflects on society's pursuit for perfection through the plot of the story. From the literature works above, factual evidences served as a backbone for the stories in which the authors use fiction to build upon. 

Superstition has been around in society for a long period of time. People’s believes in supernatural powers led to certain actions that shaped the society. “The Black Cat” is one of these superstitions in which it is specified in the story that “all black cats as witches in disguise” (Edgar). The perception that black cats symbolize bad luck and evil is one the main themes of the story that allowed this fiction to expand. In society today, many people have their own superstitions that effects their actions. “The Black Cat” feeds of from this superstition and uses it as a symbol that causes a family to fall into violence and destruction. Without superstition in society, it would be difficult for “The Black Cat” to develop its plot and towards its final climax. The superstition helped Edgar to draw an allusion using society’s mythology to portray people’s abuse of alcohol, retribution, and irrationality. Other elements of human instinct are also portrayed in other works of literature that uses factual evidence from society to develop a fictional story.

Although society shuns the idea of judging a book by its cover, it is nonetheless a hard act to follow by society because people are by nature judgmental. In “Desiree’s Baby” the judgement based on appearance made Armand, the father, feel disconnect to his own baby. In the beginning when the baby was just born, Armand loved Désirée and the baby for their outer beauty. However, the baby and Désirée soon became blemished as Armand discovered that the baby was not white. Armand rejected his wife and the baby because of the impurity in their appearance. The act of judging by appearances also surrounds the society in how people live today. In one news article titled “To My Daughter, About Your Birthmark” by Dawn Weber, people in the society often asks question about the author’s daughter’s birthmark like, "What happened to her? What's wrong with her face? What's that on her head?” (Weber). The article stresses that people looked at the child with weird stares because she had a birthmark on the child’s face. The author later stresses the satisfaction when the birthmark had disappeared, as her daughter got older. People care about their appearance because of the societal expectation, and “Désirée’s Baby” uses this expectation in the story to use it against Désirée and the baby. Even though Désirée and the baby might be colored, Armand shouldn’t base his love on the color of people’s skin. Armand’s action of rejecting Désirée and the baby showed that he never loved them. The fictional story of  “Désirée’s Baby” uses the factual evidence in history to portray the theme of judging by appearance and racism. Another standard in society is the perception that people want to strive for perfection, and this idea can be show in a work of dark romanticism. 

People have the natural propensity for perfection, and Hawthorne in “The Birthmark” presents such pursuit for perfection. The birthmark on the Georgiana’s face bothered Aylmer throughout their marriage. Like  “Désirée’s Baby”, Georgina's birthmark represents an imperfection in the appearance that Aylmer wants to get rid of through scientific treatments. Since Aylmer desired to make his wife perfect, he performed many experiments on her trying to defy against nature. This pursuit for perfection eventually led to Georgiana's death. In our society today, the pursuit for perfection is what drives many people forward toward their goals. However, people know that it is impossible to be perfect in what they do. “The Birthmark” reflects the impossibility of reaching perfection by stating, “he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present” (Hawthorne). The story teaches the lesson that perfection is impossible to achieve. In reality, people know that perfection is not attainable; however, they chase after perfection so that they can be successful in what they do. Because people are willing to work hard, learn from failure, and show persistence in their work, they can achieve success with perfection as the driving force.

Fiction is based of from everyday life themes, cultures, and believes. At the base of most fictional stories, factual evidence is the backbone for those fictional stories like it is in “The Black Cat”,  “Désirée’s Baby”, and “The Birthmark”. The fictional stories build its plot and lesson through everyday events and values that makes the stories relatable to the public. By making the stories relatable to the public, people can enter a different world where they experience real life problems and troubles through an invented scope. People can also experience things that they never experienced in real life because of the factual based elements in the stories that allow them to relate and learn. There is fiction that are completely invented; however, the character-to-character interactions feed off people’s minds with what is familiar to them, such as love, friendship, and hatred. Although fiction stories are fake or invented, they are in fact, sometimes at its core, factual.