Read Between the Lines: The Reality in Fiction
I am pretty sure that some of us have had moments wherein, amidst reading a novel or watching a movie, we posit ourselves as the characters we tend to resonate with. Perhaps, in our eyes, “that” character stands out the most, or we feel a vague connection to a character from the dim, as though they are a representation of the fragments of our thoughts that we cannot decode. Well, may it be one or the latter, it is best that we understand how to read fiction literature between the lines of reality.
Fiction in literature cannot be framed by an absolute definition, but one thing is for sure: it goes beyond what is usual. You may encounter names that sound too good to be true or statements as hoaxes intended as facts. And who could be responsible for the oddities one could read? That person is called the author – the one who weaves ideas into words as one.
Turning a page could give you something: it could be knowledge because of the discoveries you may encounter, or a haven that serves as your resort to seek escape from the pain brought by reality – or a safety net. One way or another, fiction can be a way of life.
The fact that fiction paves a different way from non-fiction – the unbudgeable truth here is that it is like Dora’s backpack, filled with useful things that could be of help to a person, especially a student who has the space and opportunity to learn and share new things. In school, we are mostly taught with objective, operational, and conceptual knowledge. Through fiction literature, however, the feelings, experiences, and lessons in them can still be real. At the same time, fiction can show the problems and realities of our society, such as inequality and discrimination. As learners or readers, we have the eyes to read and the brain to understand, thus giving us the power to decide how we shall internalize what we have learned and use it in the future. We learn not just about made-up characters, but also our thought processes and the world we live in. We can learn how to read between the lines. We can learn the reality in fiction.