The omniscience of Ruby as a narrator allows her to have hindsight which does suggest that she is a reliable narrator, for example on the day of Gillian’s death. It must be considered however that Ruby in all honesty doesn’t appear to particularly like Gillian to begin with, as Gillian is often cruel to her, for example the rocking horse incident. However, it must be taken into account that not only are we unaware of the death of Pearl until the end of the novel, so is Ruby as she represses the memories. If we had known about Pearl from the beginning of the novel it may have affected our responses towards Gillian. This could affect Ruby’s reliability as a narrator as information is unconsciously withheld. We only see Gillian through Ruby’s eyes, and her unreliability may account for Gillian coming off the worst when in reality this may not have been the case. In this chapter Ruby states before it has happened ‘Gillian’s last day’ and makes comments which are rather snide throughout the chapter leading up to her death such as ‘make the most of it Gillian, I say’. Yet again Ruby blames poor Bunty for the accident for suggesting a trip to the theatre, ‘so really she’s responsible for Gillian’s death. This cruelty towards Bunty is typical of the novel and reflects Ruby’s somewhat biased account of her mother and her sister.
This is similar to the cynical accounts of Holden towards others. For example the way he speaks about the rest of the school saying that he didn’t know anyone who was ‘splendid and clear thinking at all’ and his descriptions of Stradlater, Sally and Mr Spencer. What we learn about Bunty in “Behind the Scenes at the Museum” and the other characters in “Catcher in the Rye” may not always be reliable. Holden tends to be very cynical and yet contradictory about nearly everyone he meets and like Ruby does with Bunty, exaggerating any less appealing characteristics. For example, all the children see Bunty as a bad mother and a cold character. Yet there is little mention of all the things that Bunty does do – she looks after all the children and George, and also runs the Pet Shop. Ruby does not take into account the possibility that her mother may actually be quite traumatised by her children: one daughter, Gillian, who Ruby portrays as cold and nasty, later dies in a car accident, another, Patricia rebels, has a baby out of wedlock which when given away leads to her running away, and then there’s Ruby who supposedly pushed twin and Bunty’s other daughter Pearl which led to her death. Therefore under the circumstances Bunty copes quite well and can be seen as being victimised by her children. Bunty does often show love and affection towards her children often heard saying ‘my Gillian, my Pearl’ and after the pet shop fire and Ruby goes missing Bunty warms to her, and Ruby even says ‘to my surprise she says nothing at all’ ‘for once, the invisible cord between us shrivels and shirrs to nothing as we bridge the three-foot chasm’. This suggests that perhaps the representation of Bunty is unfair and Ruby’s description of her is unreliable.
In “Catcher in the Rye” Holden is guilty of being unreliable in his portrayal of characters such as Mr Antolini. Mr Antolini seems to be the only adult who comes close to reaching Holden. His unconventional ideas and behaviour cause him to be labelled a ‘phoney’ by Holden. He is very understanding of Holden and doesn’t mind his late calling, drunkenness or him smoking, even saying ‘have a cigarette’. Mr Antolini also shows that he is comfortable around Holden and doesn’t act differently around him or speak to him as a student. We see this straight away how he jokes with Holden excusing the mess of the apartment and describing his wife’s friends as ‘some buffaloes’. However, Mr Antolini frightens Holden as he wakes to find him touching his forehead. Mr Antolini was wrong to approach Holden in this way, overstepping the boundary in his display of concern and affection. He seems to think however, that it was acceptable. Holden describe him as acting ‘very goddam casual and cool’ suggesting that Mr Antolini was acting perversely. Holden leaves immediately but later regrets his earlier accusations. He remembers that Mr Antolini had ‘certainly’d been very nice’ to him. There is no consistency in his opinions of anyone as he starts off saying that Mr Antolini was acting perversely then later thinks that Mr Antolini is ‘still ok’. Another example of this is at first Holden views Mr Antolini as a bit of a hero as ‘he was the one that finally picked up that boy that jumped out of the window’ this again cast doubts on his reliability as a narrator as he is very ambiguous by him. We don’t appear get a true picture of Mr Antolini, we might feel strongly towards him although we don’t know what he’s really like. Holden often makes snap judgments about people and perhaps realises that he is often unfair, only to change his opinion creating ambiguousness. It has also been suggested that some of Holden’s opinions reflect his views on homosexuals and his possible fear of becoming one.
Both Holden and Ruby can be accused of over exaggerating which also suggests unreliability. Ruby tends to exaggerate for comic effect like that in the description of Gillian when she pushes over ‘Mobo’. At this incident Ruby describes Gillian as containing ‘the squid-inky evil of hatred and jealously and murderous inclinations’. The reality of it the incident is that a jealous Gillian merely pushed her sister and the rocking horse ‘Mobo’ over in the yard, however the exaggeration by Ruby draws attention to the fact that she is a child and therefore reads more into an act than an adult would. This may also question whether we can trust a child’s viewpoint entirely anyway, as despite Ruby’s omniscience, her viewpoint as we see is often distorted. Holden, too, can be criticised for over exaggeration which may cast doubt on his reliability. Holden tends to exaggerate certain characteristics or small things that he sees people do which most wouldn’t notice, for example Stradlater’s razor, which was ‘rusty as hell and full of lather and hairs and crap’ which really annoys Holden and he constantly refers to it throughout the chapter as ‘that crumby old razor’. Holden picks up on things that most people wouldn’t, again showing how fussy he is. This fussiness could add to his unreliability, as we don’t get a true picture of characters such as Stradlater but only Holden’s exaggerated view. As our view of Stradlater may be distorted through Holden’s exaggeration this questions whether there is really anything wrong with having a rusty razor and if Holden is just really over-reacting, telling us more about Holden’s personality than Stradlaters. Holden’s annoyance is emphasised by his signature phrase, ‘that killed me’ and his repetition of the same thing. This characteristic of Holden also tells us a little about his slightly obsessive personality trait. This however, leads to a very detailed account unlike Ruby who tends to miss out details often matter, with comments such as ‘the rest of day is a bit of a blur’. This may add to her unreliability as by missing out details the reader has to piece together what has happened. However, Holden’s inconsistency also suggests unreliability. Holden is irritated by Sally Heyes even noting that he ‘sort of hated old Sally’ but yet he asks her to marry her even saying he ‘really meant it’. This leaves the reader in a state of confusion and Holden sums it up by saying that he is a ‘madman’ and ‘that’s the terrible part’. This unreliability reflects his troubled personality and his constant desire for a meaningful relationship making his unreliability explicit.
A key term used throughout “Catcher in the Rye” is ‘phoniness’ and Holden often talks about people being ‘phoney’. However, these statements seem contradictory and therefore unreliable as although Holden hates phoniness he himself is always pretending to be something he’s not. We see this at the beginning of the novel when Holden meets a fellow pupil’s mother on the train. Holden acts differently around her and makes her up lies about her son being ‘too shy and modest’ when in reality he thinks that he will ‘stay a rat his whole life’. Some may argue that Holden is merely being polite here. However, Holden seems to be enjoying part of it which suggests that he is actually mocking her. Holden then goes on to tell her he has a ‘tiny little tumour on the brain’ Clearly Holden is pretending to be popular and at school and also tries to get the sympathy vote, basically telling lies and himself being phoney. This casts doubt on his reliability as a narrator as we are unsure of whether of not we can trust what he says because of his phoniness, yet it can be argued that he is only acting this way to expose the other boy’s phoniness, which in turn shows himself to be a phoney as well At the beginning of the novel Holden also admits to being ‘the most terrific liar’ so therefore his reliability as a narrator is reduced. These lies may also change the way we think about Holden as for all he has to say about everyone else he is really just a hypocrite there are moments in the novel when we get a glimpse of Holden as others might see him, for example when he gets drunk and phones Sally even saying to her grandmother, ‘wake her up! Wake her up! Attaboy!’ this is where Holden’s psychological turmoil is clear and although when reading we do not feel that the novel is through the eyes of someone who’s judgement may be impaired. Perhaps this and his unreliability should be taken into account.
In Ruby’s case, however, her psychological problems almost come as a shock to her, which perhaps makes her even more unreliable as a narrator than Holden. As a teenager she realises that something is wrong with her, even saying that as an onlooker she would say, ‘that child needs help’. It is only when Bernard alerts her as to what she has supposedly done does she realise that she has suffered repression, consequently forgetting the existence of Pearl. We then begin to piece together the information that Ruby unreliably left out. The omission of Bab’s death also shows Ruby’s inability to face up to her loss. Although by the end of the novel the picture is complete, one cannot help but think that Ruby’s repression has lead to more unreliability as a narrator than it originally appears.
Despite both Holden and Ruby being considered to be unreliable narrators, on the surface this doesn’t seem to be paramount when reading the novels. It has been said the number of readers who have been able to identify with Holden and have idolised his as their hero is staggering. There have been thoughts that there is something about his discontent and his vivid way of expressing it, makes many readers feel that they can relate to him, from what ever background they may be from. Instead of looking at his faults many reader revel in his cantankerousness and admire him. Likewise, many readers grow to love Ruby’s character and despite her unreliability by the end of the novel readers may see her as a victim of the repression which caused this unreliability. The fact that it was clearly no fault of her own leaves Ruby being portrayed as an extremely exceptional character.