Susanna Moodie's Roughing it in the Bush employs certain fictional strategies. Susanna the author both implicitly and explicitly criticises Susanna the character for her deficiencies; this is usually done through the observations of other characters. The implication is that Moodie shaped her materials rather deliberately to a pre-conceived form rather than to a didactic account of pioneer life. The book, although episodic, has a larger unity that relies on fictional elements to reach fruition.