Fiction Vs. History

Literature is reflective of human lives as a means of keeping record of events as well as an outlet of creativity. Joseph Conrad concludes that “fiction is nearer truth” than history, as history is assumed to be based off facts. History is numerical figures such as how many died in the war, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, who got married to whom and when, stock market losses. Fiction takes the intangible aspects of human life and examines them closely. In all American short stories, a reader can pinpoint the six basic elements of fiction. While plot, characters, setting, point of view and style may vary, themes reoccur. Although a reader can pinpoint a myriad of themes, the aforementioned reoccurring themes surround ideas of love, war, and identity. The fact that similar themes and topics reappear over time, specifically in American history, makes these ideas real and truthful and thus confirming Conrad’s conclusion that “fiction is nearer truth.”

Contemporary pop artist Jason Mraz sings “love is real / it is not just in novels or the movies / it is fact” (Mraz “The Official…). Love is an idea that has been examined throughout time and appears repeatedly in American short fiction. In 1990, Tim O’Brien writes about this idea of love in “The Things They Carried” from the perspective of First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Significant because it is proposed by the title, this main character carries (love) letters from a girl named Martha. O’Brien uses the concept to further the character development of Jimmy Cross: “More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her, but the letters were mostly chatty, elusive on the matter of love” (O’Brien 1). This quotation demonstrates the inner thoughts and yearnings of Jimmy Cross towards love object Martha as well as the true intent of the letters. Jimmy Cross is placed in the devastating situation of war and is surrounded by death. When companion Ted Lavender is shot, Jimmy Cross yields the pain of the loss and directs his thoughts toward Martha:

Lieutenant Cross felt the pain. He blamed himself…He pictured Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her (7).

Using his love for Martha as a way of blinding himself from the war adds to the character growth of Jimmy Cross. O’Brien is able to do this by devoting the second story in his collection to the theme of “Love” and Jimmy Cross’ realization that his fantasies of returning and spending his life with Martha are not plausible. While his expectations are not plausible, his emotions, growth and thought processes are real and honest to human nature. Jimmy says “Nothing had changed. He still loved her” as he reveals a treasured photograph of Martha (28). O’Brien goes on to describe the tryst between Jimmy and Martha and how nothing ever came of it, but “he still loved her” (29). This examination of love by O’Brien is limited to the idea of romantic love, but other authors, such as Sherwood Anderson, write about love of teaching. In 1916, Anderson explores the mind of main character Wing Biddlebaum who is oppressed due to his expressive hands. Wing Biddlebaum, formerly known as Adolph Myers, is banned and no longer allowed to pursue his beloved teaching career. The love of teaching is directly stated when Anderson writes, “Adolph Myers was meant by nature to be a rare teacher of youth” (Charters 590). Myers not only loved teaching but was also loved as a teacher: “he was much loved by the boys of his school” (590). Anderson emphasizes Biddlebaum’s love of teaching to further a larger idea about the devastating effects of oppressive provincial society. Because the idea of love appears in 1916 and is continuously recurring in 1990 with Tim O’Brien and presently (in 2005) with Jason Mraz, love is nearer truth and more reflective of human nature than history.

While war is reported historically with death counts and reports of bombings, it dehumanizes people, causing war to seem artificial and distant. Writers such as Tim O’Brien, Constance Fenimore Woolson, and Ernest Hemingway focus on the impact of war and its effects on an individual level making war honest and truthful. Tim O’Brien introduces several characters in “The Things They Carried” and discusses the moral impact the war has on them by what they physically and emotionally bear. O’Brien writes, “They shared the weight of memory…They carried each other, the wounded or weak. They carried infections. The carried chess sets, basketballs, Vietnamese-English dictionaries, insignia of rank…” (14). In this passage, O’Brien is creating the idea of individuals with memories, with hobbies and with concerns. Deaths are reported in numbers or faceless names in newspapers; O’Brien constructs the thoughts and reactions of those individuals who are actively participating in the Vietnam War: “When someone died, it wasn’t quite dying, because in a curious way it was scripted, …irony mixed with tragedy, and because they called it by other names, as if to encyst and destroy the reality of death itself” (20). O’Brien explains the inner-thoughts of a war veteran’s reactions to and attitudes towards death. Describing a death as “irony mixed with tragedy” gives the point of view of the soldier towards the cause of death: the war. In 1925, Hemingway also describes the thoughts of a war veteran in “Soldier’s Home” from Soldier’s Home. Like O’Brien, by simply focusing on one person’s thoughts, war becomes more than simply a victory or a death toll; it becomes real, unique and affective. In “Soldier’s Home,” Krebs returns to his home in Oklahoma from serving in World War I to find that he has changed; the war changed him. Hemingway introduces the story with a brief history to give insight to Krebs’ life before the war, recounting his life at a Methodist college before describing Krebs’ new life during Post World War I era. Hemingway reflects on how war is glamorized when he writes, “His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities” (70). Krebs knows what went on during the war and feels he has to lie to maintain interest in his listener. The historical reports and accounts of the war are not reflective of the actuality of the war. Hemingway continues to contrast what society believes about the war to the actuality from a soldier’s point of view through Krebs’ mother’s one-sided pleas for prayer:

I know the temptations you must have been exposed to. I know how weak men are. I know what your own dear grandfather, my own father, told us about the Civil War and I have prayed for you (75).

In this passage, Krebs’ mother is claiming men are subject to temptations and weak which is ignorant to someone who has been through the war. Her understandings also come from stories of past generations. If his mother signifies society, then the vast opinion is not reflective of the reality of war which is signified by Krebs. War is represented negatively in Hemingway’s observations of World War I in “Soldier’s Home,” but Woolson offers a different interpretation of war in 1877. Instead of delivering a mindless, fanciful tale, Woolson, like O’Brien and Hemingway, provides a realistic story of the war through the point of view of main character John Rodman. John Rodman, having served in the Civil War, performs his daily duties of raising the flag above the cemetery and observes his Georgia surroundings with a sense of patriotism: “This was not patriotism so-called” (Charters 316). Rodman looks to patriotism to justify his serving in the war; he perceives patriotism to be duty, and that war is meaningful. Patriotism, according to Rodman, would not be simply sticking a plastic flag to one’s SUV before flying down the highway in determination of being on-time for a daily job. Woolson creates a character that defines duty, patriotism and creates a sense of war being meaningful. Although the opinions of war vary among the aforementioned authors, war is discussed on an individual level, creating a realistic portrayal instead of simply reporting numbers and recording events.

Considering that America has been described as a “melting pot” or more recently a “stew pot” in reference to the cultural diversity, identity is also a recurring theme in American short fiction. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros examines this idea of identity through main character and narrator Esperanza Codero in 1984. Cisneros sets up the story to introduce a house with which the narrator deems unsatisfactory. The collection progresses in a series of metaphorical searches until the final stories where she finds an acceptable house of her own. In “The House on Mango Street,” Esperanza describes it as “small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in” (Cisneros 4). Physical characteristics help her find her identity in “Hairs” as she describes her own hair as well as her mothers. Her mother’s hair is “the warm smell of bread before you bake it” which is comforting (6). Esperanza is giving her mother a character and identity while discovering her own identity. In “My Name,” Esperanza looks to the meanings of her names to help define herself: “In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters” (10). Esperanza then bluntly says “But I am always Esperanza,” a statement that indicates her self-discovery (11). Towards the end of Cisneros collection, in “The Three Sisters,” the idea of Esperanza’s name comes back as she has discovered her personal identity: “What’s your name, the cat-eyed one asked. / Esperanza, I said. / Esperanza, the old blue-veined one repeated in a high thin voice. Esperanza…a good good name” (104). Her name is part of her identity as well as where she came from which is the house on mango street. Cisneros confirms this idea as she writes, “When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are” (105). This conclusive statement clarifies the theme of identity throughout Cisnero’s collection The House on Mango Street. In 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman reiterates the theme of identity in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Main character Jane is confined to a rented mansion room to recuperate from neurasthenia and is treated by her doctor husband. Jane is forbidden to write yet finds solace in her journal. Although the narrator is unreliable, she is still uncovering her sense of identity through comparison with her imagined wallpaper counterpart. As Jane is oppressed herself, she begins to lose sanity, and by freeing the perceived woman in the wallpaper, she is freeing herself. Jane begins to see the woman in the wallpaper outside, almost as if she is imagining herself to be outside: “I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in those dark grape arbors, creeping all around the garden” (Charters 401). Although Jane as a narrator is unreliable, Gilman is still writing about identity and making a broader statement about patriarchal authority. The information Jane reveals in “The Yellow Wallpaper” could not possibly be shared with her psychiatrist husband. Therefore, in 1984 and 1892, the theme of identity is present and reflecting aspects of society.

To conclude, Conrad is accurate in stating that “fiction is nearer truth” because “history is based on documents” such as newspaper reports. While some facts and reports appear numerically, they are not always an accurate reflection on human life. Because similar themes and topics reappear in fiction over time, specifically in American fiction, these ideas are real and truthful. These themes and ideas include, but are not limited to, love, war and identity. These are themes that compose humans and reflect human nature, providing the framework for lives and revealing motivations. Therefore, by examining the inner-workings of individuals and mankind, one can begin to understand human nature.