While in theory every first person narrator is unreliable because everyone views the world differently, a true unreliable narrator in literature is a narrator who is clearly and intentionally biased, not credible, and/or misunderstands what is happening around them. When the character telling the story is not trustworthy, they are called an unreliable narrator. Other stories using a side character as a narrator include The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes where Doctor Watson tells Sherlock Holmes’ story and Lemony Snicket tells the Baudelaire children’s story in A Series of Unfortunate Events. The classic example of this is Nick Carrwary in F. Sometimes the main protagonist isn’t the best storyteller, so another character must step forward to narrate. By using Death to tell Liesel’s story, Zusak is able to show what happens to other characters and in other parts of the country because Death knows things a young girl cannot. If another character is more interesting or objective or has access to more knowledge, the writer might choose to tell the story through that character to show these aspects. The advantage to non-protagonist narrators is the control the author gains over the reader’s perception. This can change the way a reader thinks of the main character because the reader is getting the information secondhand, through an innately biased source. When a character other than the protagonist narrates a first person point of view story, the reader gets to see the character through the eyes of someone else. While Death does change as much as a supreme being can, Liesel is the one with a full character arc and the focus of the tale. There are moments where The Book Thief seems to be written in third person as Death reports Liesel’s life to the readers then Death’s perspective on the events unfolding will seep into the narration, reminding readers who is speaking. Curiosity got the better of me, and I resigned myself to stay as long as my schedule allowed, and I watched (7). I practically inhaled it, but still I wavered. Originally, I’d done everything right: I studied the blinding, white-snow sky who stood at the window of the moving train. I can’t explain to you the severity of my self-disappointment. Death reveals he is not the central character in the passage:Īs for me, I had already made the most elementary of mistakes. This is the case in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, where the narrator is Death and the protagonist is a young girl, Liesel Meminger. They might be a side character or even a main character, but they are not the main protagonist. Sometimes the character telling the story is not the protagonist. Other novels with reliable protagonist narrators are Alchemy of the Afterlife: A Memoir by Linda Kinnamon, Hounded by Kevin Hearne, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. These characters also tend to be likeable, so readers root for them to succeed. The reader believes everything the character says, something that should not be taken for granted. The biggest advantage to a reliable protagonist narrator is the instant trust granted by the reader. If they aren’t the main character, then they aren’t really writing a memoir instead, they are writing someone else’s biography. If they don’t come across as reliable, then they will be seen as a liar in all aspects of their life and story. When someone writes a memoir or autobiography, this is the narrative stance they are expected to take. In this type of first person point of view, the narrator is the protagonist. The first of these came as a terrible shock and, like anything that changes you forever, split my life into two halves: Before and After (8).įrom this passage, the reader knows Jacob will be telling them his story of change. I had just begun to accept the fact that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen. In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Jacob tells the reader: This is the kind of narrator most first person pieces use and most readers think of – a trustworthy character telling their own story.
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