Stiefel-Non-Fiction-Paper

Stiefel's Domain Mike Stiefel Mrs. Laurencot Non-Fiction Essay

My book, __Piers Anthony__, informs the readers of Piers Anthony's life as an author and how his work came to be. Piers Anthony is a science-fiction writer, whos work has been nominated multiple times for "Hugo and Nebula awards and other awards, includind the August Derleth Award for best fantasy novel of 1977, //A Spell for Chameleon//." (Pg. 9). However, Piers Anthony did not want to be a science-fiction writer at first. Through devastating events that crippled Piers Anthony emotionally and mentally, it was then he decided to become a science-fiction writer. This can relate to people in society. When someone goes through a hard time in their life, they can do either two things: Give up, or decide to strive for the better. That is what exactly Piers Anthony had done, he had taken his corrupted childhood and decided not to give up but instead make something of himself. People in society can be the same, after a crisis that has happened to them, they could either wallow in dismay or like Piers Anthony, be inspired to do something for the better, in spite of their situation.

Piers Anthony's work reflects heavily on his life, mainly events of his childhood can be seen in the characteristics of the heroes in his work. Born in Oxford, England, in 1934, "Anthony experienced the first major change in his life when his family moved to spain in 1939." (Pg. 10). The move had representeded a tremendous disruption, and not too long later, in 1940, followed by his father's imprisonment by Franco's goverment, "the family had left Spain, an experience even more devastating to the young Anthony than the first had been". (Pg. 10). Piers Anthony had suffered a string of psychological problems, such as: bed-wetting, convulsive head and hand motions and fear of the dark. His experience with the psychological problems are also suffered by many of his heroes, "most particularly Brother Paul in the Plant of Tarot trilogy." (Pg. 10). Piers Anthony is quite an inspirational figure, taking his past life of trauma and dismay, and turning it around to fuel his work, instead of feeling pity for himself. Society should be like Anthony, taking their problems and instead of feeling pity for themselves, do something productive or helpful.

There are people in this world who are similiar to Piers Anthony, who are strong willed and despite what has happened in their lives, they have done something to turn their problems around and transformed them to help themselves or the world. In current history, Stephen Hawkings is a prime example of this trait of someone turning their life around. Stephen Hawkings was diagnosed with ALS, or amytropic lateral sclerosis, which is the degeneration of the motor neurons. Despite of him being paralyzed Stephen Hawkings fought to live and became one of the world's leading experts on gravity, black holes, and the origins of the universe. This shows that as a society and people in history, can relate to Piers Anthony's life, and his work.