This essay explores
the unreliable narration in Eudora Welty’s The Ponder Heart, focusing on
how she employs unreliable narration to create ironic effects. The essay delves
into the three axes of unreliability proposed by James Phelan, discussing how
Welty artfully conspires with readers to create irony by revealing the
complexity and contradictoriness of her narrators. Through a multilayer
analysis, the essay presents a clearer picture of the story world and the
mindstyles of the characters, highlighting the distortion of human nature and
alienation between human beings. Welty's use of unreliable narration, including
misreporting, underreporting, misinterpreting, and misevaluating, is pervasive
in her stories, functioning as either bonding or estranging unreliability.
Ultimately, this essay reveals Welty’s tactics in using unreliable narration to
dissolve the boundary between reality and imagination, guiding readers to
understand the people and the society depicted in her works.
