An Examination of the Unreliable Romantic Narrator in a Realist Novel

THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN ON NOVEMBER 19th 2007

In many novels, the notion of a reliable versus unreliable narrator is present. It is easy to understand why when examining personal accounts of situations. The exaggeration of events to glorify oneself often leaves the reader questioning the reality of the work of literature. In the great Gatsby, Nick Carraway narrates the novel which accounts the tragic life of Mr. Jay Gatsby, who fall susceptible to the self-destructive desire to achieve the American dream as he chases after his past. In the novels huckleberry Finn and The Heart of Darkness, the narrators Marlow and Huck both have flaws in their personal accounts. Often, the unreliability of these narrators is a bias created by the ideals of the time period. Additionally, in reflecting upon my own personal experiences and my story telling of them to others, I realize they are simply characterized as exaggerated. In the great Gatsby, Nick Carraway states “no amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart”, an epiphany which F. Scott Fitzgerald employs to hint that many of Nick’s memories are stored not within the mind, but within the heart, where passion and human emotion warp and twist memories into our own personal dreams which we prefer far more and so will others. I strongly agree that people are more so attracted to this notion of a unreliable narrator which

In the Great Gatsby, Nick presents himself as uninvolved in this frenzied pursuit of the American dream which characterizes the 1920’s. Nick Carraway instead show himself as a bystander observing the scene from an uninfluenced point of view. However, certain incidents that occur throughout the novel lead the reader to question the authenticity of Nick’s narration or perception of events, for example, drinking. Nick is, most certainly, drunk at various points when he narrates the novel, and therefore, his accounts cannot be taken seriously. Also, we must take notion of jealousy and human nature which perhaps affected the reality. As an innate flaw within mankind, we naturally grow jealous of those who have more and often disregard our own behaviors by hyper-focusing on that of others. Such is so with Nick Carraway. He focuses on Gatsby’s avid hunt for the American dream, and lacks to notice the jealousy which drives such an interest. Lastly, it is absurd to think that nick himself has not been consumed by the American dream. However, none of these negating factors are incorporated into Nick’s narration of the story because as a whole, it appeals to hear about the collapse of a man’s ideal world than to hear about the despair and inability of two men to maintain a consistent grasp of their dreams.

In Huckleberry Finn this notion of a romanticized tale or exaggerated truth is highly present. The novel depicts Huck’s moral struggle and maturity. Because of Huck’s immaturity, events are often depicted on a grander scale than they were in real life. Historical context also influence the lack of reality which both make the narration unreliable but the story more appealing in that it shows the common views of all as to whether or not blacks were accepted as members of society and as to whether or not slavery was wrong.

Furthermore, in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the unrealistic, heroic, yet depressing and evil-extracting venture of a man, for a nobel cause, penetrating into the heart of darkness, is unreliably depicted by Marlow. He idealizes a hero, just as Nick Carraway, and then later, finds his hero, in this instance Mr. Kurtz, to have disintegrated being susceptible to psychological deterioration, or evil, self destructive ambition. However, he fails to recognize his own ambitions, and instead creates a story where he is the heroic survivor; the bystander. This story too is affected by racism, which lies in the roots of his past. This affects the narrators ability to accurately portray the role of the Africans throughout the story. However, this fantasized version of Marlow’s real tale is readily accepted by a reader of that time period who would accept Marlow’s views of the natives.

This is all I could accomplish in one hour (since according to the College Board, I am allotted 1.5x the initial amount of time allotted. I hope I interpreted the prompt correctly.