Blog 8 JKK

In the story “Madagascar Plum”, the author depicts his memories of the Vietnam War. The narrator was an officer of the South Vietnamese Army and tells his stories to the reader. His memory of the stories is triggered by him seeing a Madagascar Plum. The stories are told only through his recollection and memory or them, so the reader must evaluate this truthfulness and reliability of the stories being told.

The reader learns that the narrator is telling these stories to find the cause of his PTSD. This creates an enormous bias in the way the story would be told and that the story is most likely unreliable due to the narrators skewed vision. The narrator tells the readers that his memories were coming back to him because of a Madagascar Plum tree that he saw and the colors of it reminded him of the child he wrongfully killed. This further proves that his mental state is not a reliable one because he is full of sorrow and thoughts that relate back to his condition of PTSD.

Another reason the narrator is unreliable is because he is a drunk. This is part of his coping with his PTSD, but nonetheless, makes his stories unreliable. The stories are being told in a café where the narrator is drinking and would not tell the stories unless he had a drink before. His views and thoughts are further skewed due to the alcohol and will mess with his memories. The narrator uses alcohol to escape the memories and thoughts of his actions and the Vietnam War. The reader cannot rely on his memories because they are fogged due to the alcohol consumption and what he chooses not to tell the reader. He feels heavy guilt for killing the little girl and could have twisted the story to feel better.

The combination of PTSD and alcoholism makes the narrator unreliable and unstable when telling his recollection of the Vietnam War. It is clear that he has not coped with the emotions and effects leftover, making it hard for the reader to trust what he is saying.