Jack-the-Bear and St. Augustine

On the surface, Invisible Man and Confessions are two extremely different books. The first is a novel about a black man in the 1950s and the second is the complied confessions of a Catholic saint. But yet upon closer examination, both books are autobiographical and a series of strategic memories. The two books are also similar in haw they are narrated in the first person. But the key difference between the two works is that Invisible Man is a novel and work of fiction and Confessions is a historical non-fiction autobiography. This aspect in comparing the two works is very important.
The difference in genres first changes the expectations of the reader. Readers expect certain things when they pick up a work of fiction or non-fiction. A reader who is reading a novel expects there to some fantastical, unbelievable, or extreme aspect contained within the plot. A reader who picks up a work of non-fiction expects the work to be filled with facts, and to a certain extent some advice, guidance, or wisdom. When one picks up Invisible Man, he/she may not expect some of the horrid descriptions of Trueblood or the battle royale, but he/she is more willing to go along with them because he/she is reading a novel. On the contrary, when someone reads Confessions he/she expects a autobiography about and worthy of a saint. The readers expectations greatly the reception of a literary work of any kind.
The difference that I think makes the most difference between fiction and non-fiction is how the author can present a point or argument. In a work of non-fiction, the author can only present reality and as such the argument or point of the work is restricted to the evidence to support it that exists in reality. This can really be a disadvantage to the author; for Augustine it meant that he could not simply state his argument and it sometimes made it confusing as to how his life was the great example of sin (Really, stealing pears??!!). But when it come to a work of fiction, the author is not limited by reality. This means that the author has his/her entire imagination to come with evidence to make his/her argument. There have been authors who have taken this to the extreme and created an entirely new reality with a complete history and multiple languages (Tolkien). This is to the great advantage to the author of a work of fiction. In Invisible Man, Ellison is able to clearly state his points through characters in ways that would never happen in reality. So many of the things that Ellison's characters say are so clear in precise in their meaning, but this never happens in reality. When Bledsoe said "You're black and living in the South-- did you forget how to lie?" (p. 139), it is a perfect example. People may think like this, but it is not something that is ever said aloud. Ellison has a great advantage over Augustine because he wrote a novel, not an autobiography.