The line between Fact and Fiction: in Defoe's "The Journal of the Plague Year"

Reading, "The Journal of the Plague Year" reminds nothing slight of a grotesque man's journey in 1665 London. Without someone like Defoe, as readers one couldn't experience moments in history like "The Plague" without the journalistic detail of his benevolent nature to humanity. The detail that struck me the most was when he describes the buriers putting the dead bodies into the pit and cover them with lime to help the bodies decompose quicker. Unless he did research, there is not a chance Defoe would have known that sort of detail without looking into the history behind the Plague in London in 1665. In his encounter with the Waterman, also proved to be significant to his "Journalistic" research as well. On page 2308 he says, "I turned a little away from the man, while these thoughts engaged me, for indeed, I could no more refrain from tears then he." Here is another great example of the way Defoe draws in his readers; the emotional effect of his experience with a man he hardly knew, but on an emotional level the two men were connected by this tragedy. Like Brad said, Defoe's "Journalistic" approach was like he was interviewing this man for an article. Both men took something from their experiences together as Defoe blurs the lines between fact and fiction, making it unclear whether the text is a novel or an actual historical event. Either way, he was creative and inventive with his writing.