This activity is meant to help us think more critically about two interconnected and important aspects of fiction: point of view and narration.

Our textbook gives us a great run-down on one of my favorite types of narrators: the unreliable narrator. Kelly Mays writes:

When we read fiction, our sense of who is telling us the story is as important as what happens” (77). Who tells the story, how they tell the story, and what they focus on affects our understanding of the story. This is particularly true when we have reasons to distrust the narrator. According to our text, “One kind of narrator that is especially effective at producing irony is the unreliable narrator. First-person narrators may unintentionally reveal their flaws as they try to impress. Or narrators may make claims that other characters or the audience know to be false or distorted. Some fictoins are narrated by villains, insane people, fools, liars, or hypocrites. When we resist a narrator’s point of view and judge his or her flaws or misperceptions, we call that narrator unreliable. This does not mean that yo should dismiss everything such a narrator says, but you should be on the alert. (78)

Three of our stories this week are told by first-person narrators: “Cathedral,” “The Cas of Amontillado,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Assignment

After reading each of our first-person narrated stories this week, think about which one(s) has an unreliable narrator. Choose one that you think is unreliable.

Next, write a fully-developed paragraph of at least six sentences where you discuss the unreliable narrator by doing the following:

Name the text and author in the first sentence.

Explain why you think the narrator is unreliable.

Provide at least two examples of the narrator being unreliable; at least one of these needs to be a direct quote.

Explain why the narrator is unreliable

Is it intentional? Is it unintentional? Is it because the narrator is a villain, foolish, naive, mad, biased, or something else?

Explain the effect the unreliable narrator has on the story & why the author may have chosen to use an unreliable narrator to tell this tale

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