...In my opinion Huck is definitely a reliable narrator. Though Huck's age could be considered as something to make him seem like an unreliable narrator, it’s the exact reason why I find him to be the best narrator for this novel. Huck’s personality, viewpoint and youthful voice makes him so earnest and truthful with himself, and therefore with us, that we as readers are happy to take him at his word. Through our own experiences, we can understand the experience in the context of a thirteen year old, and because he is a child he can get away with things other narrators may not. This allows Twain to be candid and endearing at the same time. Huck is a realist, he may lie to other people, but he never lies to himself and when he knows something isn’t right he doesn't hesitate to state that. For instance, when he says “ Here she was a bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see, yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it. And she took snuff too. Of Course, that was all right, because she done it herself”, he knows that the Widow Douglas is a hypocrite because she will not allow him to smoke tobacco (Huck Finn, Page 132). Another reason that Huck is reliable and was the right choice for narrator is that when we read a book through the voice of a young boy, we are able to learn more about the individual just through their actions and words. However, if the author, in this case Mark Twain, narrated the book...
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...is a close friend of the narrator’s wife, so when the Robert comes over to spend the night, the narrator reluctantly acts inviting. In the beginning, the narrator is very reserved, but by the end of the story, the blind man and the narrator share a personal experience that causes him to become a less judgmental individual. Throughout the story, the author changes the view that the reader has of the narrator through the development of his character, exposing his biases, and creating an epiphany at the end of the story. Before this epiphany occurs, the narrator’s morals and characteristics are presented at the beginning of the...
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...“In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgments; a habit has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.” (Ch.1, pg. 1) The narrator is perhaps the most important component in bringing life to the text. A unique point of view provides the reader with a subliminal value hidden within the text. Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” is fantastic in the way that it contains a narrator whose reliability is questionable. The narrator Nick Caraway is a first person peripheral narrator in which he witnesses the main character’s story and recounts it to the reader. He seems to be a reliable narrator to an extent in which he is biased especially with his judgment on the other characters in the...
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...The language he uses is quite unsophisticated – like its everyday-life language, and he doesn’t use any formal words. He is an unreliable narrator since we only hear his point of view. He is a teenage boy – about 14. He works out a lot since he wants to get bigger, it doesn’t happen right away. In the beginning, he doesn’t grow, and he asks the school nurse why. She tells him it’s because of malnutrition. This also tells us something about the absence of the mother, since he hardly got any food. He is not one of the tallest boys in his class, but not the shortest either. He really likes to read, and since he lives in a basement and has a lot of privacy, he pretty much does it all the time – except when he’s working out. We don’t know exactly what kind of books he reads, but we know he reads a ton of books about stealing, and he even ordered a book, he could read before going to his school and shoot people. He has been alone all his childhood, and he hasn’t felt the love from his mother all his life. He has been physically abused (he has been hit, burned with cigarettes etc.) and emotionally abused all his life. Since he has never felt emotion attachment from his mother or anyone else and has been very isolated, he has a hard time in social situations, and doesn’t talk much – he just nods. In his file (at his school) it even says that he has an attachment disorder. He is strong on the outside (since he works out and lifts weights), but is vulnerable on the inside...
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...Often times when reading novels based off of true events, the reader is inclined to interpret what the narrator says to be true. In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, neither Artie nor Vladek could be considered reliable narrators due to Artie being the author of the book thus being able to edit his book however he saw fit, and Vladek is unreliable because his recollection of the Holocaust has a large bias since he only encountered one side of the Holocaust and his memories could be skewed by his age. Artie is not a reliable narrator because he is both the author and narrator and because he has allowed his relationship to his father to bias his perspective. Art Spiegelman chose to show his relationship with his father in the book. “Simultaneously it is a sharp study of the tension that exists between father and son, and the story of the writing of the book itself” (Grossman “Maus…”). Due to him being the author and editor of the book, one cannot trust Artie because he could have edited anything he wanted in order to portray the tension between him and his father in a different light than what it really was. Throughout the novel, Art and Vladek have intense arguments, the most passionate being the final one where Art leaves his father, calling him “Murderer” (159). When taken out of context, it seems a bit extreme for Art to call his father a murderer. But, the way Art wrote about his mother and included the very personal strip that he wrote about her, makes the reader feel for his side...
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...The Narrator Being in a long-term marriage presents many obstacles that husband and wife must overcome in order to preserve a healthy and satisfying relationship. The honeymoon phase quickly fades for many, and keeping the spark and passion of a marriage alive can prove a significant chal-lenge. This is particularly the case when the marriage nears an age of some twenty or thirty years, as is the case in the short story The Narrator. The relationship between the narrator and his wife, Gloria, is running on fumes. The only love that exists between them is platonic, if even that: The sexual connection between them is vir-tually non-existent, and part of the reason for this is likely the fact that the narrator suffers greatly from the perils of being a middle-aged man. He has put on weight and is portrayed as unkempt and unattractive, spilling food when eating (p. 1, l. 4) amongst other things. They talk with one another only when it is convenient, and live almost entirely separate lives, which likely stems from the fact that Gloria seemingly has little to no interest in her husband. The narrator finds it increasingly difficult to get her attention, feeling almost invisible to her (p. 2, ll. 31-32) as a result. For instance, Gloria responds to his attempt at start-ing a conversation by practically ignoring him, continuing to read her newspaper (p. 1, l. 12), and it is mentioned that she spends more and more time doing exactly that, possibly seeking refuge from the narrator...
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...Compare and Contrast American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro focussing on the topic of the unreliable narrator The unreliable narrator is a technique used by authors where a scenario is created in which the reader cannot trust the narration of the book usually done in the first person. In American psycho, Ellis explores the sinister nature of Wall Street yuppie culture by examining the sanity of the narrating protagonist Patrick Bateman using the unreliable narrator. Ishiguro also uses this, exploring ideas of regret and also self-justification in the character of Mr Stevens in The Remains of the Day. Unlike Ellis who examines Bateman during his early working years, in his mid-twenties and presenting a snapshot of his life, Ishiguro uses his take on the unreliable narrator to look at Stevens towards the end of his life using a series of flashbacks narrated unreliably, by Stevens. Both novels are comparable in the sense they examine the topic of failure using unreliable narrators that will do anything to escape the idea that they are failures. A popular debate regarding American Psycho is whether Patrick Bateman is a murderer or not, certainly Bateman describes in detail of murders he commits and why he commits them, however, certain factors bring Bateman’s reliability of narration into question. Bruno Zerweck argues that due to the lack of ‘detective framework’ and ‘unintentional self-incrimination’ the narration of the novel is...
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...Unit: Point of View Introduction In this unit we will examine point of view. The perspective from which the story is told is a key facet of narrative. “In telling a story, who tells it is of paramount importance” (Bohner and Grant 15). Narrator “Choosing a narrative point of view is perhaps the most important and most difficult decision a writer of a story makes. Point of view—like plot, character, setting, and language—is a creative decision; however, it is also a very much a technical decision” (Bohner and Grant 15). “Someone has to tell the story. That someone is called the narrator. But the question is who will that narrator be and what does the narrator know” (Bohner and Grant 15). Mediation Drama and film unfold directly before our eyes. In narrative fiction there is always something (a viewer, a speaker, both) between the reader and the action: a point of view other than our own has already been imposed. This is mediation. Point of view involves the angle of vision (the point of view from which the people, events, and other details are viewed). This view is called the focus. The words of the story lying between the reader and the story is the voice. Focus Focus acts like a camera. It chooses what we can look at, the angle at which we can view it, and how it is framed. In this case, a tv screen vs. a movie screen. Details and emphasis change depending upon the frame and the focus in both text and film. Angles in film...
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...Cathedral I did not care for the narrator of this story at all! The way he told the story was very irritating and made it hard for me to become interested. I had to read back over many paragraphs to comprehend what was going on. He could have put five of his short sentences that said the same thing over and over again, into one sentence. To me the narrator seemed simple minded. There was a couple moments only a sentence or two where he made me think the story was going to become easier to read, but it did not. In a way I do pity him, because his sentences consisting of only a few words and the way he would say the same sentence over, just switching the words a little made it seem to me that the narrator did not know how to speak correctly. The narrator seemed almost resentful about Robert coming to visit. He came across very rude and non-supporting of his wife, who was excited being able to see an important friend she had not seen in years. The narrator acted like being blind was a contagious and deadly disease. He did everything not to like Robert or to give him a fighting chance. Robert surprised me in the end, because after the way the narrator reacted throughout the story, in the end it was Robert who won over the narrator and gave the narrator an important life experience. Robert may be blind and could not see the narrator’s actions and facial comments, but he had to be able to feel the negative attitude the narrator had towards him. Robert just continued on,...
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...“Abduction” is about a boy and his family and how things didn't work out at all.The conflict of the story is between a boy and his older sister. What is important is that the story is not told from the boy or his sister’s point of view but from someone standing outside. There are hints that indicate that the narrator is a sibling to the boy and his sister.”He’d been born late in my parents’ marriage and was much younger than she was”(l. 35). It becomes clear that the narrator has got the same parents as the boy and his sister and that the main character´s sister, Ann, is older than him. ”Being only a few years older I remembered those days too but my recollections were a bit different”. From these quotes it is clear that the three persons are related - they are siblings. There are other quotes though which contradict this. “Like most teenagers he hadn't much confidence in his mother and farther and Anne, his sister, had all the answers.” Instead of mentioning Ann as “our sister” he disavows her as a family member. Another example of this: “because their parents were shy…” Again it gives us an idea of the dissociation the narrator has to his own family.In the beginning of the text the narrator thinks about killing his sister or at least hurting her. After having read the story we know that the youngest brother dies in the end. Ann is...
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...elevated status in regards of maturity. This is the case in the extract of the novel called “Smashed” written by Koren Zalickas in 2010. We follow a young girl narrating as she reflects on several events in her life, the social patterns relevant to her and most important of all - finding a solution to her awkward presence. The narrator is a girl attending eighth grade who has been living under uneasy circumstances. This becomes evident as she describes herself withdrawing from her own family (p. 88 ll. 31-p. 89 ll. 2). This part of the extract not only tells us how the narrator is partly shunning her own family, which indicates confusion in this context. It also gives the reader the impression that the narrator is an insecure girl judging by her own description of her closet along with the usual challenge every morning regarding the narrator being unable to decide how to dress herself depending on the mentioned factors. This correlates well with the narrator being insecure as she is struggling with identity problems (p. 86 ll. 29-30). The narrator believes that drinking will be the solution to her self-described awkward presence (p. 89 ll. 14-16). The narrator refers to the bottle being a sacra, which is a materialistic piece symbolizing a new elevated status granted to you in the completion of an initiation ceremony by being given this sacra. She considers drinking as...
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...A Family Supper by Kazuo Ishiguro Setting The story takes place at the narrators fathers house (the old family house I guess) in Kamakuro district in Tokyo, Japan. There is also a conversation between the narrator and his dad while the drive from the airport to his house. In the beginning they are sitting inside in the tearoom. Later the narrator and his sister, Kikoku, take a walk around the compound. They spend some time at the well. Later the father and narrator take a walk around the house. They all eat together in the dinning room. The atmosphere is tense. You feel that the relation between the father and his children is not the best and certainly they don’t feel comfortable around him. The tension between the narrator and his sister is much more relaxed but only when the father is not around. Environment: It seems like the family is well educated and doing fairly well – high social status. The father has been doing serious business but his firm went down. He still has a very big house so he must still be affluent. The narrator has been living in America and the sister is about to finish her studies. All have a high level of education. It’s also mentioned that the family have some samurai blood in their veins. The father is proud about that fact. The story takes place in the old family house and Kikuko and the narrator haven’t been there for long. It seems like they didn’t want to go there before now when their mom died. That setting creates an atmosphere...
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...2015 Point of View Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" uses the third-person limited point of view to tell a story about a village that celebrates an egregious, annual event. The narrator in the story shows many small details of the lottery taking place, but leaves the most important and thrilling detail until the end: the winner of the lottery wins the prize of being stoned to death by other villagers. The usage of third-person point of view, while adding a few bits of omniscient, is a convincing way of explaining this ironic narrative. The narrator uses third-person point of view by explaining information and actions to the reader to try and keep the reader off-balance of figuring out the conclusion. "The Lottery" is predominantly told in the third-person limited point of view, but infrequently, the narrator becomes omniscient to uncover information to the reader, but in the story, the villagers know the event that is occurring. The minimal use of omniscient does not diminish from the narrative, and also effectually shows the reader of small details that do not repeat. Omniscient is an effective way of holding in the surprise till the very end. The use of third-person point of view allows the narrator to use small specifics, for instance, the appearance and origination of the lottery box allows the narrator to show the reader meaningful hints without spoiling the ending. Stones are the weapons to kill the winner of the lottery, but the Smith 2 information is explained plainly...
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...thinks right between himself and his wife again. All of this is described in the sentence: “He went inside, wiping his shoes and ducking his head like a visitor” and “and that moment he thought, maybe – maybe he could make things right”. That could be why he is taking their son on a trip; to take a small step and make up for some of his mistakes he has made. We only hear about the narrators’ thoughts and not about the sons: “He could hear himself breathing hard”. This make the narrator restricted and therefore we are only seeing the story from the man’s point of view. It also guides the reader through the story even though it is not told by a first person narrator but by a third person narrator. The narrative mode is describing through the story, the narrator gives small hints saying that something dangerous is about to happen. However, if nothing happens at first, the effect of the hints makes the reader anxious together with the main character. The technique the narrator uses is also to give danger signals to the reader. Some of these signals could be: “The current was stronger”. When the narrator does this the reader is constantly forced to fear the worst for the main character, which is exactly what the main character does; fearing for him and his son. All of these signals lead in the end to the last and most difficult...
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...Effects of adversity — Comments from Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad narrators in each novel A stories narration may appear as a descriptive frame-tale as in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, or an in-depth third person view in Tess d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. In Conrad’s tale, the reader experiences the story through Marlow’s personal encounters upon his expeditions in Africa. Seen through the late nineteenth-century European eyes, the narrator creates images of violent imperial suppression and presents the corrupt colonial civilization that occurs in Africa; effectively creating a screen for the dehumanization and philosophical challenges of the pilgrims. Compared to Tess d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy wrote in third person to establish...
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