Need some help w/ my thesis

Young_Love · September 2014

I'm working on my MFA thesis and I'm writing about unreliable 1st person narrators in YA. One of my sources is a book about unreliable narrators and he lists several types. I have YA examples of a few of the types, but I need YA examples of 2 other types and I'm having a hard time coming up w/ examples because I'm tired of thinking about this. (And I guess it doesn't have to be YA if you can't think of one, but maybe teen/kid characters?)

I need a "clown" character who is unreliable as a narrator because his purpose in telling the story is entertainment, not to be truthful. So kind of like a court jester who is just trying to get everyone to laugh, this would be a character we can't trust to tell the truth because he is willing to sacrifice truth in order to tell a good story.

I also need a "picaro" character who is kind of a rogue or a rascal - a picaresque character who can't be trusted as a narrator to tell a truthful story because he's been wearing so many masks, trying to fit in from place to place, that he has lost a true sense of who he really is.

And obviously when I say he I mean he or she. ;-)

Hmm...I kinda just thought of one for the second one, actually. But I'd love your suggestions on these if you can think of any in YA or any teen 1st person narrators who might work.

j*&p* · September 2014

Mara Dyer fits in the picaro category, I think.

Briony from Chime by Frannie Billingsley is a great unreliable narrator, but I'm not sure she fits neatly into either of these categories. It's been a long time since I read this book, but I remember her being someone who believed untruths about herself because these negative perceptions were drilled into her by her stepmother and other people around her. She sacrifices the truth to tell a good story, but not so much to make people laugh. This is a very gothic story in tone so she's kind of entertaining by bewitching the reader into a shadowy fairy tale world. Here's a blog post with more detail if you're interested: http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2011/08/chime_by_franny.shtml

Cameron from Going Bovine by Libba Bray is a cool take on unreliable narrators, but his unreliability is because of the mad cow disease so that probably doesn't fit.

Young_Love · September 2014

j*&p* said:

Mara Dyer fits in the picaro category, I think.

Briony from Chime by Frannie Billingsley is a great unreliable narrator, but I'm not sure she fits neatly into either of these categories. It's been a long time since I read this book, but I remember her being someone who believed untruths about herself because these negative perceptions were drilled into her by her stepmother and other people around her. She sacrifices the truth to tell a good story, but not so much to make people laugh. This is a very gothic story in tone so she's kind of entertaining by bewitching the reader into a shadowy fairy tale world. Here's a blog post with more detail if you're interested: http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2011/08/chime_by_franny.shtml

Cameron from Going Bovine by Libba Bray is a cool take on unreliable narrators, but his unreliability is because of the mad cow disease so that probably doesn't fit.

Thanks!

There is actually a "madman" character who is unreliable because of mental illness, but I have pages and pages on that one already.

Chime might work...the clown doesn't necessarily have to be FUNNY, just someone who is sacrificing truth for story. And it's just a quick mention. BUT this means I need to read it. In all my free time. LOLOL

Ooh, good call on Mara Dyer. That could work. I was also thinking of the main character in a 2014 debut ARC I read, but it doesn't come out until THE DAY BEFORE THIS IS DUE, so I might not be able to pull that off. haha

Lauren620 · September 2014

Could you write about Ryan Dean from Winger as the clown? I don't know that he necessarily sacrifices the truth, but he definitely embellishes in his comics.

And for the picaro, what about Nastya from The Sea of Tranquility? She definitely is wearing a mask and lost sense of who she is.

Young_Love · September 2014

Lauren620 said:

Could you write about Ryan Dean from Winger as the clown? I don't know that he necessarily sacrifices the truth, but he definitely embellishes in his comics.

And for the picaro, what about Nastya from The Sea of Tranquility? She definitely is wearing a mask and lost sense of who she is.

OH these are great! And I've read both of them already! Thanks!

(I'm totally open to more suggestions if anyone has them)

84Lauren · September 2014

Have you read the Seven Realms series? The male MC (Han) might fit the picaro character - I distinctly recall one of my favorite parts in the series is when we finally see him strip his mask to himself and resolve to be the person he knows he should be. It killed me!

I'm not usually a good judge of this sort of academic analysis of characters though, so that might be way off.

j*&p* · September 2014

Young_Love said:

j*&p* said:

Mara Dyer fits in the picaro category, I think.

Briony from Chime by Frannie Billingsley is a great unreliable narrator, but I'm not sure she fits neatly into either of these categories. It's been a long time since I read this book, but I remember her being someone who believed untruths about herself because these negative perceptions were drilled into her by her stepmother and other people around her. She sacrifices the truth to tell a good story, but not so much to make people laugh. This is a very gothic story in tone so she's kind of entertaining by bewitching the reader into a shadowy fairy tale world. Here's a blog post with more detail if you're interested: http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2011/08/chime_by_franny.shtml

Cameron from Going Bovine by Libba Bray is a cool take on unreliable narrators, but his unreliability is because of the mad cow disease so that probably doesn't fit.

Thanks!

There is actually a "madman" character who is unreliable because of mental illness, but I have pages and pages on that one already.

Chime might work...the clown doesn't necessarily have to be FUNNY, just someone who is sacrificing truth for story. And it's just a quick mention. BUT this means I need to read it. In all my free time. LOLOL

Ooh, good call on Mara Dyer. That could work. I was also thinking of the main character in a 2014 debut ARC I read, but it doesn't come out until THE DAY BEFORE THIS IS DUE, so I might not be able to pull that off. haha

Maybe try to find another one then. I think the chances are small that you would enjoy Chime. It's a cool story and has a little bit of a Gemma Doyle vibe, but it has less of the complicated friendships and more of the paranormal, Gothic elements to it, which I think might annoy you.

InLovewSB · September 2014

In Beastly by Alex Flinn, the narrator Kyle Kingsbury tells the first several chapters from his very skewed viewpoint of appearances being the most important thing, and this makes him something of a rogue character. It's not a perfect fit of your criteria, though, because already from Chapter 1 the narrator knows he's been changed and is recounting the events that lead up the the transformation.

I just thought I'd throw it out there, though, because those first several chapters are definitely told as if he's completely right about appearances and is being sorely and unfairly punished by this witch. And by the end, we know that Kyle Kingsbury is the mask he had been wearing because he has transformed into Adrian, who understands the importance of inner beauty.

Need some help w/ my thesis

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