The Human Stain

Point of view refers to the person(s) from which information derives in the story. Writers use one or more points of view to shape the narrative in various ways. A first-person narration, for instance, can help bridge the gap between narrator and reader, creating intimacy and trust. If this narrator is unreliable, however, readers remain skeptical about the narrator’s true intentions. Unreliable narrators might have personal reasons for skewing facts and fiction, and authors can also use unreliable narrators to help readers challenge preconceived notions about not only the story and its characters but about the real world outside of the story.

Roth utilizes an unreliable narrator to help challenge readers’ perceptions about fact and fiction. Roth clearly labels Nathan Zuckerman as the official narrator of the novel, but the narration consistently slips into other characters’ points of view (including but not limited to Lester, Faunia, and Delphine). This signifies the subjective nature of truth and knowledge. What one character believes to be true is not necessarily objective fact. If the reader accepts Nathan as a reliable narrator, then the points of view from other characters’ perspectives are a product of Nathan’s imagination, and, as a result, not necessarily true.