Wednesday #34 - Narrator Reliable

This is an essay that I wrote for my AP Literature class:

Narrator: Reliable?

            In narrative, all the information is given by narrator (hence, narrative), and therefore all the information passes through a single filter. In novels such as The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, the narrator is fairly reliable, because of a 3^rd person perspective, or in Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, where the narrator has little bias to the story, leaving little room for doubt in whether or not the reported events are true. And then there are narrators of questionable reliability, such as Bromden of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. With his statement at the end of the first chapter, “it’s the truth, even if it didn’t happen,” leaves a certain wanting for clarity, but his reliability is can be argued based on his bias, his mental and emotional stability, and his personal significance in and towards the events he narrates (8).

            As far as heavily involved characters go, Bromden does seem to lack a large amount of bias in his retelling of the events in the psychiatric ward, giving what would appear to be a fair account. While yes, he does view the Big Nurse and her Black Boys with distaste, he doesn’t use malevolent language in describing their actions towards the patients, instead favoring more bland language initially, but as his exposure to McMurphy increases, his view of Nurse Ratched alters to one more berating, referring to her treatment of the patients during the Group Therapy sessions as less helping them and more “rubbing [their] nose[s] in [their] weakness[es]” (137). This shift in descriptive diction is symptomatic of a change in bias, showing the changing view Bromden has for the nurses, and as far as narrator reliability is concerned, that means he will be less reliable, and more inclined to alter the events in his retelling to show the nurses in a darker light, showcasing any and all potentially negative aspects

            Bias, however, is not the sole cause in Bromden’s questionable truths, but the personal significance of the events he narrates require inspection, if he is to be determined as either a reliable, or unreliable narrator. If he were not so profoundly affected by McMurphy’s actions in the ward, Bromden could just be written off as an observant bystander, and his reliability would not be an issue worth discussing. He is however, deeply altered by McMurphy, and so it changes his narration. Before McMurphy came to the ward, Bromden pretended to be deaf and dumb, ignored by others, seen not as a person sweeping a room by the staff, but a broom the moves through the room, but after McMurphy, Bromden felt the inclination to talk, to think for himself, and go against the orderlies and nurses (a truly crazy thought). This translates towards a more reliable narration, as Bromden becomes more involved with McMurphy, he becomes more “sane,” and therefore more reliable as a narrator.

            Sanity is a definite factor in reliability, which is why Bromden’s increases as the story progresses and the “fog” he professes to see dissipates, leading to clearer and more honest narration, because his perception of events isn’t being altered or effected by mental instability. This is pivotally important in regards to trusting Bromden as a narrator, because he is not the most stable or sane of individuals, due to shock therapy and psychoactive drugs, both of which damage his brain, and cause disconnects in his thought process that could result in an incorrect and non-neutral observance and recounting of events. These problems, however, resolve over the course of the novel, due to Bromden’s positive changes from McMurphy, making the events at closer to the end of the novel more likely to have happened as described then those events occurring at the beginning (except for the first chapter, which is given from a perspective akin to hindsight, and is technically an instance of omniscient narration).

            It can therefore be assumed that Bromden’s reliability as the narrator of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is non-constant trait, but instead something that ebbs and flows with his mental state, attachment to the events, and emotional bias to the people involved in his retelling. The simple thing to do would be to write him off as unreliable on a whole, but that is unwise. Instead, the correct and accurate thing to do would be to examine each scene in question for his reliability, as it is in flux throughout the entire novel. 

April Rain Song, by Langston Hughes
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain. 

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." - Dr. Seuss