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Reader Response to Walking

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Reader Response to Walking

The paper is a reader response criticism based on Walking by Thoreau (2017) and examines elements of creative nonfiction and how the genre differs from fiction and nonfiction. The three genres differ in some significant ways. Walking as described at pay for essay is a work of creative nonfiction and offers a viable basis for exploring how the underlying genre differs from fiction and nonfiction. The literary work helps to show that creative nonfiction merges the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction as it uses imagination and craft to present factual experiences and offers pronounced reflections.

One can infer from Walking that creative nonfiction presents factual experiences whereas fiction presents nonfactual events. Thoreau (2017) uses the phrase “To come down to my own experience” to indicate that he intends to present his experiences as opposed to those of others (par. 4). He presents his experiences involving various activities. For example, he notes that “Soon after, I went to see a panorama” (Thoreau, 2017, par. 35). These experiences are true events that set creative nonfiction apart from fiction. Although most fiction has some foundation in factual experiences as noted by Bird (2015), the genre does not present factual experiences (p. 3). The presentation in fiction is exaggerated to the extent that it does not represent the factual events on which they are based. In contrast, creative nonfiction, as presented in Walking, is not only based on factual experiences, but also presents those factual experiences.

The story also suggests that reflection is more pronounced in creative nonfiction compared to fiction due to the interaction between factual events and imagination on one hand and craft on the other in the former genre. Thoreau (2017) enriches his experiences in the presentation in a manner that is not found in fiction. At some point, he notes that human activities, often termed as improvements, degrade and undermine the natural world (Thoreau, 2017, par. 15). Such commentaries, found throughout the work, show how the author uses his imagination and craft to offer his reflections on the experiences he presents in the story. Fiction is not based on factual events and therefore one would expect it to take a different direction as regards reflection. A writer’s experiences do not underpin reflections in fiction due the gap between the genre and reality and therefore the weight of reflection in the genre is to a lesser extent than in creative nonfiction.

The story reinforces the view that unlike nonfiction, creative nonfiction uses imagination and craft. Whereas nonfiction focuses on simply telling the reader something that happened, whether in summary or detail, creative nonfiction goes beyond this narrow dimension by adding creativity. The writer embraces creativity to describe a common lived experience: sauntering (Thoreau, 2017). He describes the experience as an art that takes someone to the “Holy Land” (Thoreau, 2017, par. 2). Building upon his experiences, he concludes that “In their relation to Nature men appear to me for the most part, notwithstanding their arts, lower than the animals” (Thoreau, 2017, par. 78). This conclusion shows that Thoreau is providing his thoughts beyond just what occurred. As such, creative nonfiction can be seen to extend nonfiction by utilizing imagination and craft, elements that are central to fiction.

Walking suggests that unlike nonfiction, creative nonfiction borrows literary devices such as setting, voice, and character development from fiction. Thoreau develops his setting carefully as he proceeds to emphasize that the natural world, as opposed to society, is the ideal setting for sauntering. Therefore, the author’s setting consists of the natural world and society. Character development is visible in the way Thoreau introduces and develops the character “walker”. Thoreau describes the ideal elements of sauntering and later identifies individuals with these elements as “Walkers” when he states that to have this ability one must “be born into the family of Walkers” (2017, par. 5). The creative use of these devices enables the writer to achieve literary extrapolation while maintaining the factual aspect.

The application of imagination and craft in Walking shows that the dimension of creativity in creative nonfiction elevates the level of reflection in creative nonfiction compared to nonfiction. In narration, Thoreau appears to reflect on the events he presents throughout the work. Read buy my essay for more. As an example, he notes that sauntering in the natural world is an art that “comes only by the grace of God” (Thoreau, 2017, par. 5). Thoreau’s concluding remark presented in the last paragraph represents his reflection of the experiences. He states that “So we saunter toward the Holy Land,” suggesting that sauntering has the potential to bridge the gap between humans and nature (Thoreau, 2017). In line with the observation that Walking features multiple instances of the writer’s reflections, Harper (2013) notes that “authorial presence” sets creative nonfiction apart from nonfiction (n. p). The choice of literary art devices to employ in the work depends on the writer and their application represents the author’s presence in the work. This presence can offer insights into the writer’s perspective and therefore reflection. Accordingly, the creative aspect of creative nonfiction prompts the use of imagination and craft, albeit to a profound extent, to reflect on the factual experiences in the work.

Conclusion

The preceding analysis shows that creative nonfiction merges the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction. The former genre uses key elements of each of the latter two, namely: imagination and craft from fiction and factual experiences from nonfiction. Creative nonfiction also involves more pronounced reflections compared to the other two genres. By merging the boundaries of fiction and nonfiction, creative nonfiction makes it possible to present factual experiences in a creative way that potentially enhances the comprehension and meaningfulness of such experiences.

References

Bird, J. L. (Ed.). (2015).  Innovative Collaborative Practice and Reflection in Patient Education. New York: IGI Global.

Harper, G. (Ed.). (2013).  A companion to creative writing. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Thoreau, H.D. (2017). Walking. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1022