Fiction and Reality The relationship between fiction and reality

Good morning, what I’d like to do in this session is to give a lecture about fiction and reality. Fiction, according to Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, is a type of literature describing imaginary events and people. Fielding, the renowned modem English writer, once said, "The most ideal topic of fiction is the human nature in reality." His words may somehow reveal the true tie between fiction and reality, which is exactly focus of this lecture.
  Above all, as we can see, fiction is the writer’s dynamic reflection of reality. Like the other forms of art, fiction is a written product reflecting the real life. Actually, no matter how imaginative a fiction is, we cannot deprive its relation from reality, which is the very source of its creation. Take the excerpt Why Tortoise’s Shell Is Not Smooth for example. At the first sight, it gives you an impression of a vivid incident in the animal world. Is it the writer’s ultimate purpose? Of course not. In this fiction, several aspects in humanity are brought into limelight: deception, selfishness, ungratefulness, generosity, revenge, etc. By perpetrating a fraud, Tortoise achieved his goal; by perpetrating another, the birds served Tortoise right. Looking back into the human society, we can easily find its origin. The possession obtained by immoral or unlawful means, the harm done to the benefactor, the revenge for justice’s sake... Tortoise and the birds are no less than personified animals, but are human beings in disguise. Like Jack London’s works-- The Call of the Wild, although its main characters are several dogs, human personalities are reflected, men’s interrelations are reflected, life and reality are reflected. Of course, one thing that cannot be neglected is that due to the limitation of one’s thought and horizon, writers may also misrepresent the truth of reality.
  Secondly, fiction is the writer’s artistic recreation of the reality. In spite of its origin, fiction is not the photocopy of reality. As we know, fiction may be broadly defined as any type of narrative--oral or written, poetic or prose, dramatic, mythic or folk—that creates an imaginative rather than a factual reality. It is an imaginative form of art rather than the equivalent of the real life. The characters, plots, settings in a fiction can give one the impression of familiarity. But in reality, one cannot find an exact person like Carton in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, or one like Rebecca in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. Why? Fictionists’ reflection of life is unlike the photographer’s photo-taking or the painters’ still life painting. As fictionists, with their unique thought and passion, they observe, experience, choose and recreate life in their unique aesthetic thought and judgment, then, in the same way, it is the life or reality filtrated in their mind that they artistically write in their works. Fictionists have a variety of devices to make a successful story. One feature that highlights the art of fiction is the typical characters. As is mentioned above, the appearance, behaviour and concrete psychological activity of Carton cannot be found in any specific person in the world. Every typical character owes not only to his or her high generality striking a prolonged and widespread sympathetic chord, but also to his/ her uniqueness with a fully-developed character making him impressive and distinct.
  Finally, the significant influence of fiction upon reality cannot be neglect. A good short story tries to give the reader a sense of the actual experience. Often it leaves a single sharp impression to be turned over and over in the mind. After finishing the story, the reader should have something to think about: the pathos or humour of life, its ironies, or the unpredictability of human behaviour. This is actually also the most valuable merit fictions give to the mankind. Literature is a large spiritual treasure. As a main form of literature, fiction also provides thought-provoking dews for men to penetrate, to absorb and, to change the life for the better. Its biggest charm is the description of people, the reveal of human nature as well as the expression of the emotion, thought and the entire spiritual world of the man. Each great fiction tells us the world’s truth the author perceived in his life, creating great impact on reality. One of the most distinctive examples is Defoe’s masterpiece Robinson Crusoe. Living on the lonely island for as long as fourteen years, Robinson has not a trace of the social and cultural life civilized men enjoying. Confronting to enormous physical and mental pressure, be doesn’t turn mad or degenerates to a barbarian; instead, he conquers the great difficulties that are unsurpassable for ordinary people. Robinson’s marvelous capacity for work, his boundless energy and persistence in overcoming obstacles, and his hard struggles against nature making her bend before his will--he becomes the symbol of conqueror, adventure and expansion. The success of the book was tremendous. Robinson Complex became a great momentum driving people’s pursuit of comfort and promoting the social production. Robinson Crusoe not only inspired the English bourgeoisie at the earlier stages of its development, but also encourages readers today to overcome the confronting obstacles in life in a broader sense. In short, the counteraction fiction to reality is too important to be neglected. We should make full use of the positive impact fiction on reality so as to create a better world both materially and spiritually.
  Let’s sum up. I talked about the relationship between fiction and reality. That is, depending on and surpassing the reality, fiction is a dynamic and artistic reflection of the latter. Meanwhile, for its counteraction to reality, fiction plays a great role in affection people’s outlook and behavior along the development of human society--these are where the elation between fiction and reality lies. That’s all for today. Thank you.