Think. Pair. Share.
Narrative Reliability in Ethan Frome
I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases,
each time it was a different story.
…no one gave me an explanation of the look in his face which, as I persisted in thinking,
neither poverty nor physical suffering could have put there.
It was that night that I found the clue to Ethan Frome, and began to put together this
vision of his story.

What are your impressions of the narrator from these excerpts of the
Prologue’s framing story?

What do his remarks suggest about the nature of story telling? Can we ever
know the “true” story of another person’s life?
Think. Pair. Share.
Narrative Reliability in Ethan Frome
I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases,
each time it was a different story.
…no one gave me an explanation of the look in his face which, as I persisted in thinking,
neither poverty nor physical suffering could have put there.
It was that night that I found the clue to Ethan Frome, and began to put together this
vision of his story.

What are your impressions of the narrator from these excerpts of the
Prologue’s framing story?

What do his remarks suggest about the nature of story telling? Can we ever
know the “true” story of another person’s life?