Red Kayak Narrative

I read the realistic fiction novel Reality Check by Peter Abrahams for my book talk assignment.

"The Boat" by Alistair MacLeod is the story told from the perspective of university teacher looking back on his life. The narrator relates the first memories of his life until his father's death. The story focuses on the conflicting relation between the mother and the father, and their different perspectives on how their children should lead their lives. MacLeod uses features of setting to present the tension between tradition and freedom.

Realism is shown through the way the story is set up. When the two men are speaking, proper gestures and mannerisms are used that are very realistic to what might be used in real life (Twain 1). Twain also uses local color as a form of realism in his story. He speaks of Western culture, clothes, and activities (Twain 1-2). This is a common theme or characteristic of realism: realistic events. Another point of realism is that the diction is natural. During the conversing of the two, Wheeler and the narrator, the dialect is spoken just how an Easterner and a Westerner would speak. Wheeler uses words such as “feller” instead of fellow and “yaller” instead of yellow (Twain 1). Reading these words, the reader can obviously see that the man is undereducated, which a characteristic of naturalism as well. Another reason why this story is a work of realism is simply that it depicts events that could happen in real life. Jim Smiley himself is the ideal Realism hero. He is an ordinary man who lived in a small town. This story by Twain has many elements of both Realism and Naturalism.

All books are classified by genre. Red Kayak is considered as realistic fiction because it has things like real settings in the story. Considering plot events in Red Kayak there is death, hiding from consequences, and the main character’s friends going to a camp where they just work for nine months. This could happen in real life making it realistic fiction. Other than that there is believable dialogue, true-to-life themes, and again real settings.

The way in which authors portray a historical event as fictional or historical can change the way in which the reader understands that event. When reading historical fiction, it is important to know which events are truth and which are fictional. When writing the book, The Journal of Biddy Owens, Walter Dean Myers accurately portrayed the events of Biddy Owens’ life and the time period of 1948.

Many times an authors purpose of writing a fictitious story is to not only create a story for the reader to enjoy, but to allow the reader to get something out of the story that they may not have thought about on their own. Often times the inside meaning in a story may involve something about society that the author either likes or dislikes and wants you to think about the problem yourself. In the story, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” the author, Mark Twain does an excellent job in creating an enjoyable story as well as propose a problem in society. Twain believed that society was corrupt and cruel so he created a fictional story to portray the issue. In order to do this twain created a character and put him in a corrupt society where he went on numerous adventures and throughout the story questioned the ways of society and became transcendental to their ideas.

fictionalized, but when you look further into the story you will find that it has a much deeper and

In literature, there are genres. Two main genres are fiction and nonfiction. Fiction is a work of art that is not real or based on the facts. “‘Fiction’ refers to literature created from the imagination” (“What is the difference…?”). It can explain a story in a different point of view, maybe in a way that is out of the norm. Fiction is basically just nonfiction in an exaggerated way. Though fiction may not be based on the facts, it can still resemblance a sense of real life events. “Fiction may base on stories on actual historical events. Although fictitious characters are presented in a fictitious setting in stories and novels, yet they may have some resemblance with real life events and characters” (“Fiction”). Literature is meant to

The short story How I Met My Husband, by Alice Munro, is an excellent example of realistic writing. She uses ordinary and worldly events, actual locations, and a very ironic tone in the story. Alice Munro also uses everyday people for her protagonists, who encounter normal events and emotions. In the story How I Met My Husband, Edie shows the growth from someone who is very naïve to someone who is more realistic.

Realism can be defined as view in which the author tries to depict life as truthfully and accurately as possible. The use of realistic or lifelike settings described by the author or narrated by a character, add a layer of realism to the story, even if the story itself is fictitious. The characters themselves are often portrayed as believable as possible, to the point that the character being described could actually exist; they are often depicted as very average people, void of extreme wealth, influence, or astounding abilities. The reason characters and settings are often

In the novel The Red Kayak by Priscilla Cummings Brady Parks was involved in an accident that had ended tragically, though he was not involved in the event that had killed 4 year old Ben DiAngelo it was actually his best friends J.T. and Digger, he found a drill used to put holes in a red kayak that Mrs.DiAngelo had used to take out Ben with. When he found it while cleaning for the DiAngelos, he didn't know if he should of told the truth he eventually did. This is because if you don't tell the truth, it will stress you and make the guilt so much more not to than it would to just tell the truth. This is the truth because it is just stressing him out and making him feel extremely guilty.

When writing fiction, there are certain rules that authors need to follow in order to create good fiction. Good fiction would be one that follows these 3 rules: character’s behavior is consistent, character’s words and actions spring from motivation, and characters are plausible or lifelike. For a character to be lifelike or plausible it means that the character in the story is presented as someone who you could meet in the real world. In good fiction, the reader will be able to immerse themselves into the book so well that the reader will forget that they are even reading a story. An example of good fiction would be “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright. Wright’s main character Dave possesses the three necessities that would

Realism is famous for the way it illustrates a world that seems real and true. In “A Sweatshop Romance,” Abraham Cahan creates a clear visual of the events that occurred at the coat-making factory owned by Mr. and Mrs. Lipman. Cahan shows the lower class’s working environment and how they interact with each other in a realistic manner. In “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, four men are trapped on a lifeboat after their ship sinks. After almost being saved multiple time, the group of men began to lose hope. The end of the story consists of the rescuing of the cook, the correspondent, and the captain while the oiler was found face down in the water. The realistic reactions and events in “The Open Boat” adds truth to the story.

Realism came about in literary works in the 19th century, and portrayed real life unlike the previous Enlightenment and Romanticism movements prior. Writers and people were sick of the neat, happy stories and endings that were written by the two previous movements, and those people wanted something they could relate to. Because of this, Realistic writers wrote about the boring, ordinary lives that regular folks led and did not sugar-coat anything that occurred but was brutally honest. In the words of Randall Craig, “Realistic writers educate readers, not through humiliation, but by familiarizing them with a re-presented world and enabling them to discover the rules by which it works and to apply them both to the fictional and extra-fictional

Accuracy varies depending on the purpose by which an author writes a story. Some authors may choose to base their story purely on facts, some may stick to being entirely fictional, and the rest pick and choose facts and fiction. Island of the Blue Dolphins entails the journey of a young native girl, Karana, who becomes stranded on her home island until her eventual rescue. This story in particular is based on that of a Nicoleno woman, the Lone Woman. However, facts were left out regarding what happened in real life. In Island of the Blue Dolphins, the author, O’Dell, inaccurately depicts the Lone Woman’s situational, historical, and archaeological relevance.