The unreliability of Stevens' narration draws an implicit parallel between memory and history and shows both to be liable to distortion and manipulation, whether consciously or unconsciously. Stevens had been butler to Lord Darlington, devoting his life to the service of someone he saw as a "great man." However, as the narrative unfolds, and in spite of Stevens' selective and constantly revised memory, Darlington is revealed as an unwitting pawn of Nazism. These become more significant when placed against the wider historical and political backdrop of the story. There are numerous such examples of Stevens' "unreliability" throughout the novel. By that time, the situation as regards my father had changed significantly following his fall. In fact, now that I come to think of it, I have a feeling it may have been Lord Darlington himself who made that particular remark to me that time he called me into his study some two months after that exchange with Miss Kenton outside the billiard room. I am not sure she could actually have gone so far as to say things like: ‘these errors may be trivial in themselves, but you must yourself realise their larger significance’. We did, of course, over the years of working closely together come to have some very frank exchanges, but the afternoon I am recalling was still early in our relationship and I cannot see even Miss Kenton having been so forward. The argument is narrated in direct speech, suggesting an authentic recreation of the actual incident, but is followed by a piece of narration by Stevens that immediately undermines our trust in his version of events:īut now that I think further about it, I am not sure Miss Kenton spoke quite so boldly that day. At one point we are presented with a prolonged and heated argument between Stevens and the housekeeper Miss Kenton about the butler's ailing father, also a member of the staff of the same country house. Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day (1989) is narrated by its central character, an English butler called Stevens, who recalls various events and incidents from the past in such a way as to constantly cast doubt on the dependability of his narration. As we read and discover more about a narrator we receive more and more indications that determine the extent to which we can trust the voice telling us the story. The factor I was hoping you would identify is that of the degree of reliability we can attach to a first-person narrative. In reading a first-person narration we encounter a potential problem that we do not have when we encounter an omniscient third-person narrative such as Austen's Northanger Abbey. However, in most non-fiction and some fiction, the author can model the narrator after him or her self in this case, the author and narrator are different people sharing the same viewpoint. The narrator exists within the context of the text and only exists in the story. Note: One thing you should always keep in mind is that the narrator and author are different. And finally, a story can be related by an unreliable narrator – a narrator the reader cannot trust to tell the facts of a story correctly or in an unbiased manner. In addition, a text can have multiple narrators, providing the reader with a variety of viewpoints on the text. A narrator can be a character in the story, or he or she might not appear in the story at all. The narrator, or the person telling the story, is one of the most important aspects of a text. You already know how to look for major plot points, identify the setting, and list possible themes, but you should also keep in mind who is telling you the story. When doing a close reading, you also need to keep the big picture in mind.
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