Unreliable Narrator Analysis

There is a strange appeal that unreliable narrators convey to readers. Strange, because readers take the narrations seriously, while knowing they are unreliable and limited. A game each reader desperately wants to solve, but what happens when there is a first-person unreliable narrator who is funny? Wayne C. Booth coined the term “unreliable narrator” in 1961, by referring the narrator as someone whose credibility is compromised. Vera Nünning’s “Unreliable Narration and the Historical Variability of Values and Norms: The Vicar of Wakefield as a Test Case of a Cultural-Historical Narratology,” verifies Booth’s unreliable narrator definition and suggests Booth’s concept “clearly [reveals] that the phenomenon also involves a whole series of traps …show more content…
Riggan states first-person narration conveys a “quality of realism,” due to the fact that the narrator is “directly” telling their story (19). Riggan explains further: “The very fact that we have before us, either literally or figuratively, an identifiable narrator telling us the story directly, possibly even metaphorically grabbing us on the arm, gesturing to us, or addressing us individually or collectively from time to time, imparts a tangible reality to the narrative situation” …show more content…
Doctorow’s final book, Andrew’s Brain published in 2014, is a stream-of-consciousness tale between the protagonist Andrew, a cognitive scientist, and an enigmatic interlocutor, creating a dramatic, vague, and all-around questionable story. Andrew deals with unfair deaths, epistemology scares, and schizophrenic realities of what it is like to be stuck inside one 's mind. Throughout the book, the humor adds sympathy and readers cannot help but feel sorry for Andrew. Everything he does and attempts to fix, turns into mayhem. Conversely, readers do not understand him since the narration mixes between first and third-person. Although, readers do get a sense of how his brain thinks. His brain is the character, not him. Andrew ponders one’s consciousness as an illusory idea, maybe even a UFO. Nevertheless, he cannot separate his brain and consciousness, making him go insane. His brain is presented directly to the reader as the unreliable narrator. Doctorow’s main theme with this “brain character” is that no matter the copious amount of research, x-rays, and facts one learns about the brain, one’s consciousness will remain mystical. Andrew convinces himself that his consciousness is not attached to him or his brain. That’s the whole dilemma and why I believe Andrew is revealing nostalgic, yet schizophrenia traits through his use of humor and