01 Mar Narrators are responsible for telling the action of the story. Unreliable narrators (typically first-person narrators) often

Complete these readings from the textbook:    

· Literature

·

· "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe (pg. 174)

· "The Yellow Wallpaper" By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

· Chapter 3: Narration and Point of View

Remember that academic reading is a skill you develop over time.

Here is  my best advice for scholarly reading .

,

Module 7: Lesson and Notes

What is narration?

To know what an unreliable narrator is, it is important to be familiar with how narration works.

· Narration is the process of telling a story or recounting an event. 

· The narrator determines what details are included and how they are arranged.

· The narrator is, essentially, the one determining point of view and the facts (or lies) that the reader gets to know. 

The different kinds of common narration, or point of view (POV) in literature are:

· Third-person: This kind of narrator is not typically a character in the story, but instead is outside of the characters. This type of narration allows the reader insight to the action from several different perspectives.

· There are three types of third-person narrations:

· Omniscient (all-knowing): This type of narrator is able to give insight and perspective from several characters, mostly just the main characters (but a few minor characters as well).  Because they are not a character in the action, they are not limited to any one character's perception. 

· Limited omniscient: This narrator is generally tells the story around one of the major characters, focusing primarily on what this one character sees, feels, and perceives. There is very little revealed that this particular character does not know. 

· Objective: Objective narrators tend to tell just the action of the story without focusing on any specific character and without revealing the characters internal thoughts. Stories with objective narration use dialogue and action to reveal how the characters think and feel, much like a movie. 

· First-person: This narrator is typically a major or minor character telling their own story or the story of someone. This narrative style is mostly commonly uses the pronoun "I" .

· First-person narration reveals the internal thoughts and perspectives of only one character.

· The action of the story is clouded by the opinions of this one particular character and how they experience things. 

· Unreliable narrators: The unreliable narrator tends to also be first-person and often uses the pronoun "I".

· Unreliable narrators are often insane, unstable, and, intentionally or not, tend to mislead the reader. Or they could be incredible brilliant. 

· This type of narration forces the reader to come to their own conclusions about the action of the story once they figure out that the narrator is compromised.

· These stories could be told from the perspective of the "bad" guy, or villain. 

· Sometimes the reader doesn't know that they have been deceived until the very end of the story when it takes a twist and gives an unexpected ending like in Ambrose Bierce's "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge".

· Unreliable narrators aren't always crazy or bad. Sometimes they are sheltered or naïve. For example, the story could be told from the perspective of a child or someone innocent that doesn't know the value of what they are telling. 

,

Module 7 Discussion: Unreliable narrators

No unread replies.No replies.

Narrators are responsible for telling the action of the story. Unreliable narrators (typically first-person narrators) often have a twist or some sort of inability to be honest. This is true in film as well. For this discussion, write a 250 word discussion board post over a film, tv episode or story where an unreliable narrator is used. A film example is The Usual Suspects, where the actual "bad guy" is the person everyone would least expect. Identify the unreliable narrator and explain how it works and affects the text. Feel free to use one of the stories from this unit or you may find another story as long as you are able to support your claim. Writers that use unreliable narrators tend to tell really interesting and engaging stories so this should be good!

After writing your post, be sure to review and edit before clicking "Submit." Then, respond to 2-3 classmates with a substantive reply… You can ask questions, agree or disagree, expand on their ideas, or make connections between their post and yours. Replies should be 3-4 sentences each.