Wuthering Heights is about the struggle of the protagonist Catherine ‘Cathy’ Earnshaw when choosing between her suitors, Edgar Linton and Heathcliff. Her trauma as a result of her son's actions may also lead to her retelling being not as objective or factual as it could be. Eva is an unreliable narrator because her retelling of memories may not be factually correct due to her bias as Kevin's mother. She is Kevin’s mother and narrates the events before, leading up to, and after her son Kevin’s attack on his high school in which several students are murdered and injured. The narrator in this novel is Eva Khatchadourian. Unreliable Narrator: Examples We Need To Talk About Kevin (2003) by Lionel Shriver These features make it difficult to know which facts to take seriously when reading Tristam's biography and the recount of events. The novel is a biography of Tristam's life and is littered with digression, double entendre, sarcasm and insults. Furthermore, when there are a variety of possible truths present in the story, a text can become more complex and enticing to readers.Īn example of a Clown is Tristam Shandy, the protagonist in The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman (1759–67) by Laurence Sterne. With an unreliable narrator, readers have little idea what to expect. The use of an unreliable narrator makes a story intriguing it is different from the typical narrative style which uses a reliable narrator. If the direction of the plot is intentionally unclear, the reader is encouraged to question the presented narrative (or narratives) and consider their own interpretation of the story's possible progression and 'truth' of events. Keeping readers in the dark in these ways can have multiple effects. The purpose of an unreliable narrator is to withhold information from readers or to intentionally steer readers in the wrong direction. Booth believed that a work of fiction does not have to represent reality or include truth all the way through the text and that, in fact, distance from the truth can lead to a text being more exciting. This text explains methods you can employ when reading and writing literary texts. Booth (1921-2005) was an American literary critic who first coined the term ‘unreliable narrator’ in his text The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961). On the other hand, unreliable narration can also include an extreme distortion of an experience, and there may be hints towards the factors that influence the narrator’s lack of credibility. In general, first-person narration aims to tell the most accurate version of an experience. This is because, as first-person narrators will always include their subjective experiences, their narration may not be accurate due to the influence of their own views, feelings, and experiences. However, the distinction between a reliable and unreliable narrator is not always explicit. Recall knowledge that contradicts what readers already know or are expected to know about the world the narrator is in.Be under the influence of substances such as drugs or alcohol.Contradict statements they have previously made or there appears to be a fault in their retelling of a memory.For example, as opposed to reliable narrators, unreliable narrators may: Sometimes, it can be quite easy to distinguish an unreliable narrator from a reliable narrator. A reliable narrator's retelling of a story is not tainted by any factors that could make a narrator unreliable, such as the factors mentioned above. In contrast to an unreliable narrator, a reliable narrator is able to give an accurate and impartial account of events. 1 - The human mind is intricately complex and can be unreliable. These include but are not limited to:Ī lack of maturity - the narrator could be too young to accurately recall events.ĭeliberately misguiding readers with a false narrative.īeing under the influence of mind-altering substances such as drugs or alcohol.įig. There are a series of factors that can make a narrator unreliable. Characteristics of an Unreliable Narrator An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose account must be questioned by the reader once it has been identified that the narrator's account of events may not be the 'true' one.
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