Surrealism is the unconventional way of thinking and expression. It does not follow the beliefs and behaviors of a centralized society. It is not just an eccentric expression of creativity, but a mechanism used to invoke emotional, shocking responses in the audience and to put rational, conscious thinking on the back burner. Surrealism promotes the use of the unconscious to explore unrational situations and their consequences. Surrealism supports the fact that not everything has meaning and that people project meaning on objects. The imagination is extolled and defended. It is the artistic movement that portrays dreamlike and irrational images that produces an "Ah-ha" response from the audience. Surrealism can manifest itself in fiction by delineating a rejection to the conventional ways of fiction. Such conventional limitations that surrealism rejects are time, a sense of place, and the rule of authority. Uncommon situations and their consequences are explored in surealist fiction. Decisions and actions are not dictated by a centralized idea and rational conclusions. Artists and writers draw their creativity from their intuition and reject the enlightenment of rationalism.
