Unreliable narrator full#

Unreliable narrators can also make the story more exciting, because it creates suspense and leads the audience to wonder: Is there really more to the story? What isn’t the narrator telling us? Why are they withholding that information? Examples of Unreliable Narratorsīelow are several examples from literature of unreliable narrators, and the effects they had on their stories. This allows them to draw their own conclusions, and creates a more rewarding experience.

However, there are several reasons why writers might choose to intentionally make their narrator unreliable, and it can actually enhance the story.įor one, an unreliable narrator can blur the lines and cause readers to think harder, and even question their own perceptions. The word “unreliable” carries a strong negative connotation, so you might think that unreliable narrators are just accidents or signs of poor writing. This can also help us to better understand their motivations. However, it’s important to consider how the narrator’s perspective and biases might influence the way the story is told. To identify a narrator as unreliable is not to say that they are bad, or somehow cheating or lying to readers. This can also be a useful method for character development.

Unreliable narrator full#

It might also just be that the narrator is naive, and doesn’t have the knowledge or information to present the full picture. When it comes to first-person narratives, one might say that they are all unreliable to some degree, because each of us can perceive the same event in a different way and remember things subjectively.

Unreliable Narrator DefinitionĪn unreliable narrator is a storyteller whose perspective isn’t totally reliable if we want to get the full picture or the whole truth.Ī narrator might be unreliable because they are deliberately deceptive, or because they are innocently misguided. While it might sound like a bad thing, the unreliable narrator is sometimes used as a literary device by authors to enhance the reading experience and make us think about our own perspectives. As readers, we have to rely on narrators to guide us through a story and recount the events so we can understand the characters and plot.īut what if the narrator isn’t exactly reliable? Can we really trust everything that one person says, and believe that things happened exactly as they say they did?