Why Is Ponyboy An Unreliable Narrator?

Answer and Explanation: Ponyboy in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders is an unreliable narrator because he is young, he doesn’t pay that much attention, and he is frequently incapacitated.

Why is Ponyboy a good narrator?

First Person (Central Narrator)
As a narrator, Ponyboy strikes us a pretty honest and observant. He doesn’t hesitate to show us his own flaws, and he tries to truthfully describe the social environment in which he exists – violence, booze, crime, and all.

How does Ponyboy being the narrator affect the story?

Ponyboy narrates the novel, and this narration is a catharsis for him. The reader is able to see the changes in Pony’s viewpoints as he is dealing with many issues that are common in an adolescent’s life. The most powerful issue is that life is not fair.

What makes an unreliable narrator?

An unreliable narrator can be defined as any narrator who misleads readers, either deliberately or unwittingly. Many are unreliable through circumstances, character flaws or psychological difficulties. In some cases, a narrator withholds key information from readers, or they may deliberately lie or misdirect.

What is an example of a unreliable narrator?

The Naïf. This type of unreliable narrator is a narrator with a limited understanding or point of view. One of the best examples of this is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Other examples of naïves include Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield, from J. D.

What are 3 traits that describe Ponyboy?

Ponyboy is the youngest in his family and in his gang at 14 years old. He is described as smart, impulsive, and handsome like his brother, Sodapop. Ponyboy Curtis is in a gang called the greasers.

Who does Ponyboy love most?

4. Who does Ponyboy love the most out of anyone? Soda. 5.

What does Ponyboy realize at the end of the book?

Ponyboy realizes that he cannot become wholly naïve or wholly tough. He cannot stop being a greaser in order to retain his innocence or sacrifice his ideals in order to become a toughened gangster.

What does Ponyboy struggle with?

Throughout the novel, Ponyboy struggles with class division, violence, innocence, and familial love. He matures over the course of the novel, eventually realizing the importance of strength in the face of class bias. Read an in-depth analysis of Ponyboy Curtis.

What was the main purpose of Ponyboy’s story?

Ponyboy is fourteen, is our narrator, and has a ton to say about himself and his world. Writing his story becomes a way for Pony to deal with the generous portions of grief that keep coming his way. When we meet Pony, both of his parents have already died in a car accident and he’s being raised by his brothers.

Who was the first unreliable narrator?

History of the Unreliable Narrator
While one could argue that all narrators are unreliable to some degree, the first example of the term being used was in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in his book on literary criticism called The Rhetoric of Fiction.

How do you tell if a narrator is reliable or unreliable?

Since then, many authors and filmmakers use the technique to create interest and suspense in their narration. Some indicators that a narrator is unreliable include contradicting stories, incomplete explanations of events, illogical information, and even questions of the narrator’s sanity.

How do you tell if a book has an unreliable narrator?

An unreliable narrator is an untrustworthy storyteller, most often used in narratives with a first-person point of view. The unreliable narrator is either deliberately deceptive or unintentionally misguided, forcing the reader to question their credibility as a storyteller.

Which narrator is most likely to be unreliable?

William Riggan analysed in a 1981 study discernible types of unreliable narrators, focusing on the first-person narrator as this is the most common kind of unreliable narration.

Who is a unreliable person?

Someone unreliable can’t be trusted to do something. Things can be unreliable too, like a bike with a wobbly wheel. The word “rely” is a clue to what unreliable means. When you can rely on something, you can count in it — it’s reliable. On the other hand, you’d better not count on an unreliable person.

What are the 9 types of unreliable narrators?

Here are nine types of unreliable narrators:

• The child. The narrator may be a different age or have completely different life experiences from the other people in the story.
• The outsider.
• The crazy.
• The crazier.
• The craziest.
• The innocent.
• The criminal.
• The ghost.

What is Ponyboy’s real name?

Ponyboy Michael Curtis A 14-year-old boy who is the narrator and main character in The Outsiders. His parents have been killed in an automobile accident, and he lives with his two brothers. Soda(pop) Patrick Curtis Ponyboy’s 16-going-on-17-year-old brother.

What is Ponyboy’s famous quote?

Quotes (102) Ponyboy: Nature’s first green is gold / Her hardest hue to hold / Her early leaf’s a flower / But only so an hour / Then leaf subsides to leaf / So Eden sank to grief / So dawn goes down to day / Nothing gold can stay.

What is Ponyboy a lover of?

Right before the Socs violent act, Ponyboy details his love for books and other artistic forms, and mentions how much he loves his brother Sodapop.

Is Ponyboy handsome?

Ponyboy is described as handsome, much like his older brother Sodapop. He has an athletic build, the Greaser trademark hairstyle of long, greasy, brown hair, and green-gray eyes.

Who is beside Ponyboy’s bed when he wakes up?

Who is sleeping in the chair beside Ponyboy when he wakes up in Chapter 10 after the rumble? Darry.