Analyzing Fiction Vs Writing Fiction

Even though I have read and analyzed fiction in the past, this is one of the few times that I have ever actually written it. All I can say is that it was actually a pretty fun experience! After all, even though we had to write within a certain context, the assignment still allowed me to be creative. I came up with a story that answered the question “Under what circumstances would someone kiss a credit card?”. All I can say is that in an attempt to answer this, I had a lot of brainstorming to do. This was pretty good though since I ended up coming up with a silly story about a girl whose mother is a complete health food and exercise fanatic. So, because of her crazy obsession with weird foods, the girl pretty much refuses to eat. In the end, when her father secretly gives her a credit card, the girl kisses it since it means that she can finally have a decent meal. I know it may seem silly, but if it wasn’t for this assignment, I probably never would have thought of it.

I think that whenever I do a literary analysis, I always try to find hidden meaning in the text. I also try to pay attention to symbols, foreshadowing, characterization, and all the good stuff that a story contains. By writing my own story and having the opportunity to do peer editing, I realized that other people also seem to look for these things. After all, one of my peer editors realized that the diet health nut mom in my story was actually a satire of all the crazy dietary and exercise trends that women submit themselves to. Meanwhile, while analyzing another group member’s story, someone noticed that she had a recurring theme involving whistling sounds. She had also made very good use of imagery in her story, and I thought it was very clever.

Overall, I think that in teaching fiction, I think it is a good idea to let students see both ends of the spectrum. Most students are taught to do a literary analysis, but very few are actually given the opportunity to write their own fiction. So I think that by giving students the chance to both analyze and compose fiction, they will get a chance to better appreciate both the work of others and their own.