The Unreliable Narrator

The chapter "The unreliable narrator" deals with characters from two different novels Pale Fire and The Remains of the Day. Both novels contain a character which narrates the story. In Pale Fire it is Mr. Stevens (the butler) and in The Remains of the Day it is Charles Kinbote. Though the two novels differ completely in topic both use an unreliable narrator as a literary tool; to make a seemingly simple story more interesting by twisting certain events and happenings. Tim O' Brian uses the same technique in The Things They Carried. In this novel Rat Kiley is the main unreliable narrator, his stories are always enhanced by his tendency to over exaggerate and his need to impress the other soldiers. Even though the narrators of these three novels are 'unreliable' they enhance it and give it its tone.