Neil Gaiman’s “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” utilizes the first person narrative to navigate the story. The story is told through the point of view of one of the main characters, Enn. In a sense, the narrator is both omniscient and unreliable. Although Enn claims that this event happened “thirty years ago,” he uses vivid and specific details to describe his feelings and his experiences at the party. For example, when Enn sees Wain Wain, he describes, “Her hair was so fair it was white, and long, and straight, and she sat at the glass toppled table, her hands clasped together, staring at the garden outside, and the gathering dust.” (259) Although Enn claims, “I have forgotten much and I will forget more,” his precise descriptions prove otherwise. (268) In this sense, Enn is all knowing when it comes to being aware of his surroundings. He is even able cite exact conversations he had with Wain Wain, where she stated, “I grow weary of the journeying…It was a good thing they could not any of them see Hold Colt.” (260-261)
In this sense, Enn seems like a reliable narrator. Readers are confident in what he is saying and get a zoomed in view of what is going on at the party. However, as Enn shifts from reliable to unreliable, readers also encounter a first-hand distorted experience.
Enn becomes an unreliable narrator when he fails to observe the abnormalities and alien-like characteristics that the girls have. Although one of the girls had “two smaller fingertips,” and another had a gap between her teeth, he fails to express any feelings or observations. From the reader’s point of view, we can tell these girls are literally foreign, they are not from this planet, and they talk like robots: “The last tour, we went to sun, and we swam in fire pools with the whales.” (262) Although Enn is narrating the story, he fails to acknowledge these distinct characteristics. This type of narration portrays how although Enn is very competent, his narration becomes distorted because of his determination to focus on talking to girls. All he focuses on is what to do next with them: “I edged closer to her so I could feel my leg pressing against hers.” (266) His lack of focus on other aspects of his surroundings make him unreliable, especially when he claims “all the girls at the party were lovely,” (264) which is obviously not true.
In this sense, readers can’t rely on Enn when it comes to what actually happened at the party. This notion is especially clear when Vic claims, “She wasn’t a -” (268) Because Enn fails to notice the alienisms in the girls, readers can’t quite infer what exactly was wrong with Stella. However, based on the other girls at the party, she probably wasn’t normal either. This type of narration influences the story because it leaves readers zoomed out. In this way, readers lose confidence in the narrator and his reports, making them anxious and wondering about the realities of what actually took place at the foreign party.
I agree that Enn has the qualities of both a reliable and unreliable but don’t think that there is a direct shift. Throughout the story he uses vivid detail to describe his surroundings and conversations that took place between the girls at the party giving him a sense of a reliable narrator. On the other hand Enn often uses little phrases like “in my memory” to show that he does not quite remember what happened. When he can’t recall everything at the party this makes him seem like an unreliable narrator. Another factor that goes into being an unreliable narrator is that he didn’t know that the girls were aliens despite all the signs. He was so absorbed by talking to them that he couldn’t all their weird and unique qualities. In missing small details of how the girls were acting it makes you question what else he missed at the party.
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