Mary McCarthy once wrote that some of the best novelists of
her time used first-person narration in such a way that their books became "[…] the
author, like some prankster on the telephone, is speaking in an assumed voice
[…the reader] senses the author, cramped inside the character like a
contortionist in a box and suspects (often rightly) some trick" (Alleva). One
must always consider the truth when reading a first person narrative such as The Catcher in the Rye, The Glass Menagerie, and The Great Gatsby. Holden Caulfield, Tom
Wingfield, and Nick Carraway narrate their stories in such a way that tricks
their readers. The narrator’s personality and proximity to key events account
for a filtering and distorting of the truth, the result of which is a lack of
credibility and reliability, both of which directly affect the reader.
Holden
Caulfield, “the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” (Salinger 16),
narrates a weekend he experiences a year earlier. Caulfield, the first person
narrator of The Catcher in the Rye,
narrates his story with a filter. His conscious is the lens through which we
see his world (Rowe…..
