The Man Who Would Be King
by Rudyard Kipling

The Man Who Would Be King: Unreliable Narrator 1 key example

Unreliable Narrator
Explanation and Analysis—Prejudiced Narrator:

The narrator of “The Man Who Would Be King,” while more worldly and level-headed than Carnehan and Dravot, is still an unreliable source of information. This is because the narrator is clearly prejudiced against people of other races, low-income white people, and women. The following passage, which comes at the beginning of the story, communicates the narrator’s racist and classist beliefs:

There had been a Deficit in the Budget, which necessitated travelling, not Second-class, which is only half as dear as First-class, but by Intermediate, which is very awful indeed. There are no cushions in the Intermediate class, and the population are either Intermediate, which is Eurasian, or native, which for a long night journey is nasty, or Loafer, which is amusing though intoxicated.