After reading The Madagascar Plum I believe the narrator of the story is an extremely unreliable one. Early on in the story, it is easy to see that the narrator is unreliable for several different reasons including his being an alcoholic and the fact that he is dealing with PTSD.
The narrators alcoholism is evident throughout the story, starting in the second paragraph when he states "Pour me another drink, and when I've finished it, I'll tell you the story" (Ngoc 1). By requesting a drink to tell the story it suggests that he may not be able to remember things as clearly as he could if he had not been drinking meaning that things may be left out of the story or that parts may not be true. Moving forward in the narrators story, he begins to talk about the night that caused him to be so upset in the beginning of the story. "It went on this way until the fateful night. The night that if I hadn't been under the devilish influence of alcohol wouldn't have turned out the way it did." By saying this the narrator proves that the alcohol influenced his actions and may have directly resulted in the young girl's death. It also suggests that because he was drunk he did not fully comprehend the situation he was faced with and therefore may be remembering it incorrectly. Another example is when he states "From that time, alcohol took on a fetid taste, but without alcohol, I can't bear-"(Ngoc 9) which shows that he relies on alcohol to keep the memories at bay. Since alcohol has such an effect on memories and the way a person perceives a situation, it is obvious that the narrator can not be relied upon to tell the story truthfully.
In terms of PTSD, the narrator makes himself appear unreliable because of it in a few different instances. The first instance is when he is initially faced with the Madagascar Plum and is unable to even stand the sight of the fruit because it resembles the child's skin. The second instance is when he states "the brownish shadow of the small child has stayed with me until now. It never stops pressing on my chest and cling to my neck and throat." (Ngoc 9) Since the memory of the small child never leaves him and he is haunted by the image every day he is probably not thinking clearly and therefore is unreliable. We also see PTSD in a line shortly after the previous quote where the narrator admits to beating his oldest son for crushing a Madagascar plum between his thumb and first finger. (Ngoc 9) In beating his son the narrator shows that his everyday life is affected by his memories even though what was going on is actually unrelated to what happened.
By concluding that the narrator is unreliable it influenced my interpretation of the story because I stopped looking at it as a somewhat true story and instead began viewing it as a work of fiction. It also made me think that if the story was true then the narrator was probably not revealing everything that happened and was excluding specific details that would justify the child's death so that the narrator appears as a type of monster who is capable and guilty of killing an innocent child when that may not have been the case.
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After reading The Madagascar Plum I believe the narrator of the story is an extremely unreliable one. Early on in the story, it is easy to see that the narrator is unreliable mainly because he is an alcoholic. As an alcoholic, he is very likely to change the story he is telling by doing things such as exaggerating or misremembering it. He is also an unreliable narrator because he appears to be suffering from PTSD, which is shown in the way the past comes back to haunt him and that he has resorted to alcohol to get by.
ReplyDeleteThe narrators alcoholism is evident throughout the story, starting in the second paragraph when he states "Pour me another drink, and when I've finished it, I'll tell you the story" (Ngoc 1). By requesting a drink in order to tell the story, it suggests the narrator may not remember things as clearly as he could if he had not been . This means that some things may be left out of the story or even made up. Moving forward in the narrators story, he begins to talk about the night that caused him to be so upset in the beginning of the story. "It went on this way until the fateful night. The night that if I hadn't been under the devilish influence of alcohol wouldn't have turned out the way it did." (Ngoc 5) By saying this the narrator proves that the alcohol influenced his actions and may have directly resulted in the young girl's death. It also suggests that because he was drunk he did not fully comprehend the situation he was faced with and therefore may be remembering it incorrectly. This idea is reinforced with the line "The longer I remained inside, the more I lapses into a stupor and the foggier I became." (Ngoc 6) This line shows that the narrators judgment was impaired at the time of the event and is most likely misremembering the circumstances. Another example is when he states "From that time, alcohol took on a fetid taste, but without alcohol, I can't bear-"(Ngoc 9) which shows that he relies on alcohol to keep the memories at bay. Since alcohol has such an effect on memories and the way a person perceives a situation, it is obvious that the narrator can not be relied upon to tell the story truthfully.
In terms of PTSD, the narrator makes himself appear unreliable because of it in a few different instances. The first instance is when he is initially faced with the Madagascar Plum and is unable to even stand the sight of the fruit because it resembles the child's skin. The narrator becomes very upset at even being offered the fruit exclaiming "--Enough, Brother Hai! Offer me anything but that fruit, please, I beg of you."(Ngoc 1) The second instance is when he states "the brownish shadow of the small child has stayed with me until now. It never stops pressing on my chest and clinging to my neck and throat." (Ngoc 9) Since the memory of the small child never leaves him and he is haunted by the image every day he is probably not thinking clearly and therefore is unreliable. We also see PTSD in a line shortly after the previous quote where the narrator admits to beating his oldest son for crushing a Madagascar plum between his thumb and first finger. (Ngoc 9) In beating his son the narrator shows that his everyday life is affected by his memories even though what was going on is actually unrelated to what happened. We also see that his memories never leave him when he says that his wife believes he is an alcoholic when he states "how can they understand their husbands' moral suffering? How can I forget if I don't have liquor..." (Ngoc 8). Thanks to PTSD, the narrator is unable to forget the events of the war and uses alcohol as a coping mechanism.
ReplyDeleteUpon coming to the conclusion that the narrator is unreliable, it influenced my interpretation of the story greatly. I stopped looking at the story as being somewhat true and instead began viewing it as a work of fiction. I tried to think about it in much the same way that I thought about Tim O'Brien's stories, where the story may not be true but is truer than what actually happened. It also made me think that if the story was true then the narrator was probably not revealing everything that happened. He was most likely excluding specific details that would justify the child's death so he would appear as a type of monster who is capable and guilty of killing an innocent child when that may not have been the case. It also made me think that he may have made up the story to justify some other action, like purposely injuring himself during the war so he could be discharged and go home. In all, I stopped thinking about the story as a true story and tried to figure out possible reasons for the narrator's need to tell the story.