History- could it be fiction?

Maria Kelly
Dr. MB
ENGL 250- Section 1
January 21, 2018

History and Fiction

     History is the relaying of events that happened in the past. Fiction is something that did not actually happen and/or people that do not exist. Both are subjective, and both are able to be manipulated. History is usually factual, but as someone during our class discussion brought up, it can change and vary depending on the person who is relaying the events. Sometimes things might be considered part of “history” but they may not be fully factual due to the fact that all humans process information differently and therefore not everything or everyone is remembered in the same way. This can be proven by the evidence that many “historical” events are still being debated over and they are continually being changed by new facts and information that is received about them. Fiction, on the other hand, is not trying to be factual. While people are continually studying history and trying to get at the root of the facts, one of the students in class brought up the point that fiction is very much for entertainment. It’s not trying to be real, but rather exactly the opposite. Fiction is wonderful because it is not factual, and it is a means of escaping reality a lot of the time. People read or talk about history as things that really happened even if they may not have, but fiction is always known to not be true and so one cannot be deceived or mislead by it.