Stranger Than Fiction

Harold Crick’s normal routine was very predictable and focused around work. Work was the center of Harold’s life as is exemplified by the factor that he had never used a vacation day. Harold had no major social life, just the conversations that he had at work, with his coworkers and clients. He was very focused on work and constantly doing math problems and counting, strengthening his skills for work. He never even considered stepping out of line at work, just the same routine and lying low.
After Harold met Ana his focus on work completely changed. This can be seen as he was shifting his priorities, at first he did not want to except cookies because he might get in trouble from work. After this moment he did not really care about the consequences, his focus was on Ana. For the first time in his career with the IRS, he took time off from work and fell in love with Ana, which is clearly against the rules at work.

Stranger Than Fiction Plot Summary

Exposition- The main character of Stranger Than Fiction is Harold Crick. Harold is a very well organized auditor for the Internal Revenue Service. He has a very particular routine that he follows to a tee to and obsessive compulsive state. Other characters in this story that have some significance are Karen Eiffel, the author, and Ana Pascal, Harold’s audit client and crush.

Rising Action- The rising action of this story is most of the video as Harold finds out that he is part of someone else’s story. The most distinct part of the rising action is when the literature professional tells him that the author is going to kill him. He first reacts as most people would want to but after reading the rest of the author’s story, he feels that the best conclusion to the story is for him to die. As Harold starts to accept the conclusion to this story we reach the climax.

Climax- The climax of Stranger Than Fiction is when Harold Crick sees a young boy on a bicycle ride out into the street as a public transportation bus is headed his way. Harold jumps in front of the bus, pushing the child to safety and getting hit by the bus in a dramatic accident that should have killed him.

Resolution- The resolution of this story is that the author decides not to kill Harold in the accident. Instead, Harold is shown in the hospital after the accident with many broken bones and in a full body cast, from an accident that he should not have survived.