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Chapters 17–42
Explanation and Analysis—The Narrator's Recreation:
One evening in Paris, the narrator prompts Strickland to speak of his experiences and opinions. By admitting that Strickland's dialogue is simply an approximation of the moment, the narrator proves that he is an unreliable narrator:
“Sometimes I’ve thought of an island lost in a boundless sea, where I could live in some hidden valley, among strange trees, in silence. There I think I could find what I want.” He did not express himself quite like this. He used gestures instead of adjectives, and he halted. I have put into my own words what I think he wanted to say.
The reader assumes that the narrator, in writing this portrait of Strickland, must have reconstructed the dialogue from real-life interactions. This is a phenomenon that readers typically overlook in either fictional or factual biographies. However, for the narrator in The Moon and Sixpence to openly admit that he put Strickland's actual words into his own shines a light on the warbled truth of the narrator's writing. Therefore, it begs the question of why the narrator chooses to insert himself in this moment and highlight his role as the unreliable narrator. Perhaps the narrator wants to demonstrate that this story is not only a biography of Strickland but also a testament to his own artistic talents as a writer.
Nevertheless, the story's unreliable narrator forces the reader to accept the dialogue as an approximate reconstruction. Therefore, the reader must also take into account the narrator's biases (bias of opinion as well as the inherent unreliability of hindsight) when judging Strickland's character.
