The Too Unreliable Narrator (was: What really happened on the tower)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 155780

  
> > Pippin:
> > Yes, and that is exactly what the narrator is ambiguous about.
> > Here's the quote, with my comments in brackets.
> > <snip> 
> > Pippin
> >
> 
> Neri:
> Like I wrote to Kemper, of course it's sneaky, but it's not a non-
> description the way I defined it. I defined non-description as 
> something that the hero *must* see or know, and yet the narrator 
> doesn't describe. Harry wasn't in a position to judge the timing 
> relation between Quirrell being knocked, Snape realizing he's on fire 
> and the broom stop bucking, so it isn't a non-description. 
> 
Pippin:
But whether the character must know is blurred in this case. We
think, on first reading, that we are watching Harry up in the 
air from Hermione's point of view and that she saw him get
control of his broom  as she scrambled back along the row of 
seats. 

Of course Hermione would know that she didn't see it, but the
unannounced shift in pov conceals that from the reader. 

We later learn that the hex ended when Quirrell's eye contact was 
broken, which happened some time earlier, so the narrator has 
shifted away from Hermione's point of view and back in time, but
this is only apparent later on. Meanwhile, we're fooled about what
Hermione knows. The narrator hasn't lied, but  she let us assume
Hermione saw what the narrator saw, and that's not the case.

It's the same with that petrificus curse. Harry of course knows
whether he said the curse or not, and he may or may not know
who did say it. But the narrator doesn't tell us that he knows,
it only lets us assume that he does. 

 On revisiting the situation, which must be done 
because we don't know what happened to Greyback after he 
fell to the floor, Harry can easily say in fact  he doesn't know
who did it.  The narrative, although it seems to indicate that 
Harry said the curse, actually supports either reading, just as 
the narrative in PS/SS let us think that Hermione saw Harry get 
control of his broom, but actually also supports the reading 
that she didn't see it.  


Pippin