<p>I think it was Tim O'Brien who said something like "Just because it never happened doesn't mean it isn't true." Some kids seem to need to get a little distance from their own personal stories to write in a meaningful way about what is "true." In my experience, the fiction essays can help spur kids' thinking about their personal truths.</p>
<p>Go read 1984, F 451, Clockwork Orange, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, All Quiet on the Western Front et al and then ask the question. A better question is why people read Gossip Girl (or **** like that)… We have TV for a reason.</p>
<p>Apart from the age-old question of whether fiction expresses truth, using examples from literary fiction in an essay is a skill that indexes other writing/argumentation skills – i.e., not every writer has to use literary examples, but any competent writer should be able to do it well – and the use of literary fiction examples by high schoolers helps adult readers determine how apt the writer’s use of an example is (assuming that the reader can recognize the example), something that isn’t possible if the writer refers to his own life.</p>
<p>Fiction doesn’t prove a point. The essay writer hypothesizes about the import of a piece of evocative fiction, and she proves her point about her hypothesis.</p>
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<p>This thread has been dead for four and half years. I doubt that the OP is still listening.</p>
<p>I believe the OP is asking about writing prompts for SAT or SAT like essays, not essays written for college courses in say, history or anthropology or sociology. I might want to use Jane Austen’s novels to write about English social mores in the 18th century but as illustration, not “proof.” Anecdotes taken from Jane Austen would be combined with other, non-fictional information. QED works in math; it does not work in social sciences or in the humanities.
For the SAT essay my S wrote, the writing prompt asked for evidence taken from history and from fiction. I believe the intent was for the student to demonstrate some familiarity with literature and the ability to distill the main points of, or to succinctly describe a character, in a work of literature.</p>
<p>To the OP: Aesop’s Fables use talking animals to convey general truths about human psychology. By “fictionalizing” his stories this way, what Aesop really did was generalize the truths to apply to all of us. If the stories had been about real life individuals, it would be easier to see the lessons as simply applying to that one person. Jesus also conveyed general truths about us in His parables – the parable about the vineyard workers wasn’t really about vineyard workers.</p>
<p>Some fiction also reveals truths through metaphors and generalizations and similar devices, but often on a much more complex level, and often in such a way that some people never see it at all.</p>
<p>The OP isn’t here any more, but I am, and I ask her question: how do examples from fiction help support a thesis in, say, an SAT essay? Say our prompt is “Do we benefit from learning about the flaws of people we admire and respect?” and you argue that Hamlet benefited from learning about the flaws of his mother. Even if you gave me an absolutely airtight argument that Hamlet did benefit, how would that convince me that your thesis was true? Hamlet is fictional. Shakespeare could have made him do anything. </p>
<p>How is an argument from fiction any argument at all? It’s just dopey. Fictional characters have all sorts of attributes, some of which are realistic and some not. Rather than argue that I should believe a proposition because it’s true of some fictional character, you should be arguing that the fictional character is realistic because she embodies some truth about people-- a truth that you are obliged to demonstrate in a way other than by pointing to fiction.</p>
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<p>Exactly. Great fiction explores the intricacies, challenges, contradictions and nuances of motive. It investigates the “why” of things not the “what”. Even The DaVinci Code is driven by conflicts of power and greed, faith and doubt. That it shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath with say, The Brothers Karamazov, really isn’t the point. </p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with using your real life examples, but as soon as you ascribe feelings or motives to your friend’s actions, the essay becomes a type of fiction. It becomes your perception of events and how they played out. Most of us will not know your friend or the events that transpired; using examples from literature allows for common ground to be established. It is not Proof, but neither is your assessment of someone else’s motives.</p>
<p>P.S. For those upset by factually inaccurate fiction, a creative writing professor once chided me, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story”.</p>
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<p>Certainly. If I’m reading a work of fiction, I might be convinced of some truth. But that’s not the same as being convinced by you the essay writer telling me that some author believed this or that and embodied it in his work.</p>
<p>Any number of great classical writers thought, and wrote, that slavery was just dandy. Sorry, your pointing that out won’t convince me.</p>
<p>Maybe you folks who think an essay writer could convincingly support his proposition by pointing to fiction could give me an example or two that would prove your point-- that is, an sample paragraph from an essay where you use fiction to support your point and it’s persuasive.</p>
<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that on the SAT essay, it is important to have many EXAMPLES that fit your topic–but you will not lose points if your examples are completely made up.</p>
<p>If a prompt asks something about government or war, you could use fictional examples to prove your point if you don’t remember your history or can’t think of enough real-life examples that fit: “For example, in (made up year), when (made up name of leader), of (made of name of place) attempted to conquer (made of name of non-existing tribe, city, state, empire, planet), he did not consider the implications of blah blah blah. . .” </p>
<p>OR for a “literary” example: “In the novel (made up title) by (made up name of non-existing author), the main character, (made up name), experiences a moral dilemma when (made up name of other character) asks her to blah blah blah.”</p>
<p>As long as the examples prove your point and are grammatically correct, they can be completely fake.</p>
<p>I don’t think fiction can prove anything – illustrate it maybe, but not prove it.</p>
<p>But then, I was a science major.</p>
<p>Good fiction is the art of telling lies to convey greater truths. I’m going to go over and sit by Strick. People who don’t “get” fiction are kinda like those who are color blind…we see the same world and we can function but they’re missing something important.</p>
<p>(signed) Lightly published short-story writer currently enamored of Alan Furst and reading my first Wallace Stegner</p>
<p>A literary example can illuminate the point you are making, just like a good metaphor does. If the example is familiar to the reader, it will make it easier for the reader to see the point you are trying to make.</p>
<p>If this is a HS or college assignment, the teacher/professor probably wants to see that you are able to use literary example effectively.</p>
<p>If the essay in question is that from the SAT, from what I’ve heard, you can make up any examples, quotes or historical facts. As long as it makes sense in the context of your essay, they don’t care if it’s true.</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang, I suspect the purpose of an assignment like this is not to convince the reader of some particular position, but to demonstrate critical thinking and reasoning ability by the essay writer.</p>
<p>When I was in college, my friends and I would always look for the most outlandish statement we could make that we could support from the reading. It wasn’t whether we believed it or expected anyone else to, it was how well we could construct an argument defending that position.</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang, I sent you a PM with an example</p>
<p>What we often term as “reality” is subjectively recalled and interpreted information, and therefore necessarily fictionalized. The story a friend tells us is no more real than the made-up account we read in a book. Both came from someone’s mind, replete with biases and judgments.</p>
<p>In addition to the fine points made on this thread such as the posts from JHS and mythmom I’d add that in the course that I teach on Nobel Laureates, many college students are seriously challenged to read superb non-fiction such as work by V.S. Naipaul. They have a far easier time with novellas by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Of course, they would have the easiest time of all if I were to teach primarily U.S. authors about whom they have already heard in high school (Hemingway, Steinbeck). </p>
<p>I think the idea of asking students to write on a work of fiction in college admission essays is a great way to begin getting away from the woeful stress on the personal essay that has come to dominate the teaching of writing, to the exclusion of teaching argument or research.</p>
<p>The issue is not whether it’s worthwhile to write on a work of fiction, for a college admission essay or for anything else. I’m questioning the specific case of the SAT essay. Students are supplied a prompt, something like:</p>
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<p>I say, how can what happened to a liar in a piece of fiction be relevant to this issue? Yeah, OK, Pinocchio lied and his nose grew. So should I argue, hey, don’t lie, look at Pinocchio? No, that would not supply one iota of evidence for my argument.</p>
<p>The point is, on the SAT essay the student is not writing about a piece of fiction. He’s writing a persuasive essay about, for example, lying. He’s trying to marshall pieces of evidence about the bad effects of lying (or the necessity of lying in some cases, if he picks the other side). Nothing that happens in a work of fiction is going to be relevant, because, oh yeah, it’s fictional, it’s not real. </p>
<p>And yet, students who marshall this evidence from fiction, evidence that is not remotely persuasive, don’t get downgraded for it. That’s just one way in which the SAT essay rewards stupid, formulaic, dishonest, glib or otherwise bad writing.</p>