“My Brother Paul” can be seen as a combination of an essay and a story. It resembles a personal essay because Dreiser gives his personal reflections on his brother Paul and the various events and incidents that colored his life. It resembles a story in the way that Dreiser develops the characters and plot. Although he’s essentially just describing a few memorable events from his brother’s life, he does so in great detail, adding dialogue and characters such as his sister, their mother, and other people who know Paul, to make the narrative dramatic and engaging. It’s reads like a work of fiction, but it's based on a real person and contains facts and details about Paul’s life.
