Of Insanity In J. D. Salinger's The Tell-Tale Heart

The narrators use of insanity and delusion in “The Tell Tale Heart” creates unpredictability in the story, making it hard for readers to understand, thus making the story unreliable. Some people might say, the use of a third person omniscient narrator in the story “Down at the Dinghy” by J.D. Salinger is the most effective way at showing an unreliable narrator because the readers can never properly grasp the characters intentions. For example, “For answer, Lionel, secured the head strap of the goggles between the big and second toes of his right foot, and, with a swift, brief, leg action, flipped the goggles overboard. They sank at once.” (Salinger 6). The vagueness of the quote because of its point of view confuses readers as to why Lionel

In “The Tell Tale Heart,” the police come to check on the narrator after a neighbor reported hearing a noise. “I smiled—for what had I to fear? I bid the gentlemen welcome.” (Poe 3) Here, the narrator says he has nothing to fear, though he committed murder right before the police came, which shows his delusional state of mind does not make him a mentally stable person. If he were sane or normal, he would be freaking out at the thought of the police finding him guilty if they entered the house. Also, Poe wrote the story in first person and it can be seen that the use of first person helps readers view the mind of the distorted mental state of the narrator. By immersing the readers into the narrators mind, the audience can witness the unreliability through the disconnect the narrator has with reality and the delusional idea of not getting caught. Another quote to prove the effectiveness of unreliability in “The Tell Tale Heart” is from the time when the police speak to the narrator and the narrator starts to hear the old man’s dead beating heart from beneath his chair. “It grew louder—louder—louder! And still the men chatter pleasantly, and