Blog # 3

Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is different than any of the other “Contemporary” creative non fiction essays that I have read, because as I read it, it seemed to have the feel of a fiction short story. The way he developed the story with speaking about the way he felt about the imperialism and later connecting that to the way he felt when the crowd was expecting to shoot the elephant was contradicting, and ironical, which are things that you find in fiction as the write reaches a resolution; however that does bring back to one of the points which Lott made in his essay, that CNF is about putting things in order so that they make sense to you, that CNF is about finding your own truths; and in that case I believe Orwell accomplished that with tremendous accuracy. He did accomplish what he set out to do by writing this piece; he found his truth, which was that the reason he killed the elephant was simply to not look like a fool in front of Burmans.
In Montaigne “That Men Should….” definitely is a first because in this story he doesn’t use his own life but uses examples of History. This essay is not so much a life story or a narrative, but more of a reflection of ones of lives most intriguing subjects’ happiness. I ask myself if this could even truly be called a CNF piece of writing, after all the man is not writing about his own experiences. However one can see how CNF has developed, the latter pieces we have read seem to connect to specific story or event in a persons life; CNF has developed from a simple reflection about life, to an understanding and an unveiling of the events that caused that understanding.