“My, You Have a Way of Making Me Do Things I Don’t Normally Do.” The Examination of the Narrative (Un)Reliability of Joe Goldberg from You by Caroline Kepnes

Author(s): Paula Sadkowska, Catholic University of Lublin, Poland

Journal: Polish Journal of English Studies

Issue: 11.1 (2025)

Date: 15/06/2025

Page: 87

Quote As: Paula Sadkowska, The examination of the narrative (Un)Reliability of Joe Goldberg from You by Caroline Kepnes, Polish Journal of English Studies 11.1 (2025): 87-101

Abstract

Ever since Wayne C. Booth named the phenomenon of unreliability in narrative fiction, multiple attempts have been made to deepen the knowledge regarding its theoretical scope and practical implementation, resulting in two different approaches to its source and recognition. The initial association of narrative unreliability with the implied reader evoked a mixture of responses that included both approval and objections from narratologists worldwide, such as Greta Olson, Ansgar Nünning, or James Phelan, eventually leading to a significant shift that permanently regarded unreliability as multi-dimensional and dependable on diverse circumstances rooted both in the internal and the external contexts. The main objective of the essay is, therefore, to combine a set of textual and contextual narrative unreliability clues proposed by Nünning with Olson’s comprehension of the fallible-untrustworthy distinction in order to examine an intriguing instance of a second-person narration provided by the relatively well-known today and obsessive storyteller Joe Goldberg, the protagonist of You by Caroline Kepnes. The study aims to make a practical and detailed analysis of the protagonist’s narrative tendencies and peculiarities in order to enrich the dialogue regarding the matter of the complexity of the said literary concept and attempt to conclude the message that seems to be conveyed between the lines of his both reliable and unreliable discourse. By making a comparison of the narrator’s utterances, acts, and verbal habits with the common understanding of both the ordinary and the questionable, I will address the implications, which might encourage the reader to deeply consider the amount of trust given to Joe’s reports, additionally showcasing where his discourse should be placed on the (un)reliability spectrum.

Keywords: literary studies, unreliable narrator, signals of unreliability, implied author, American literature

Works Cited

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Received: 31.03.2015; reviewed 4.05.2025; accepted 15.05.2025