Comparing Narrative in Fiction and Non-Fiction
Fictional stories and many of nonfiction essays use narrative techniques. However, these genres use narrative very differently. This paper shall address the difference between the essay, "Shooting an Elephant," and the fiction, "Just Lather, That's All," regarding its purpose, the audience, and use of narrative devices. This paper shall argue both essay and fiction story develop a unified theme.
Essay and fiction story
Shooting an Elephant. The author of this essay is George Orwell. The author speaks of his work and personal experience that emphasizes the impact of imperialism at the sociological and psychological stage. The author joined the Indian Imperial Police as a colonial policeman in Moulmein, lower Burma, located in the part of the British Empire. This story took place in the late 1920s or early 1930s (Orwell, 1996, p.150). The story explains a culture conflict between the British (subjugator) and the Burmese (subjugated). Few British are present nevertheless, the British rule, and the narrator, as sub-divisional police officer, is an agent of that rule. This contradiction is part of the setting, as is the local resentment against the British presence. Burmese hates the narrator and manifest this hatred by deception rather than directly. The Burmese would not raise a riot, but would let the British know how they felt. The author understood how the Burmese felt and was against the British’s subjugation ways (Orwell, 1996). His form of writing allowed his voice to come right out of the page to the reader. Mr. Orwell’s mind visualize British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny and another part in his mind where the greatest joy in the world would be Mr. Orwell driving a bayonet into a Buddhist priests’ guts (Orw ...