Blog # 3 Montaigne and Orwell

The stories and essays we have read in class are the same but also different. one noticable similarity is that they are all somehow creative nonfiction. The two essays/stories that we had to read was Montaigne's, That Men Should Not Judge of Our Happiness Till After Our Death and Orwell's Shooting an Elephant. These two stories have similarities as well as differences in relation to themselves and to other stories we have read so far. Let's begin with the similarities. All these stories are creative nonfiction one way or another. Shooting an elephant is about a police officer who was called out to go shoot an elephant because the elephant became out of control and the owner could not control it. This story was from the police officer's point of view. he explains the situation and also tells readers how he feels. This story is similar with Kincaid's Biography of a Dress. In Kincaid's story, she is telling the story of a particular photograph taken when she was two years old. Even though there was no photograph in Orwell's story, Orwell was still telling a story of something that happened. Let's talk about differences among these stories. Orwell's was more a story, story where as Kincaids was more of a reflection. Between the two, Kincaid's seems realistic while Orwell's story sounded like a fiction story. I understand that these things happen where animals become out of control and have to be shot to control them, but this story in particular just left me with that feeling. It felt more fiction that nonfiction. There are elements that mark the voice in the more recent works as contemporary. Going back to my notes I looked over the list of the observations on the readings. Alot of these works have the more common elements such as character, plot, setting, and theme and symbols. Another popular element with these works is the concept of what really happened. The authors are writing about events that occured in their life, in a creative way. Some essays feature more elements than others. Overall majority of these works contain the same elements just presented in various ways.