The narrator

In the following section, we will offer you some suggestions on how you could analyse Ken Mcbeath’s short story by focusing on the narrator, Mac.

Mac is both character and narrator. He narrates an event that happened to him, the meeting with his friend Gordon: “Gordon was back from Africa after another year in the bush and we met in a pub, as usual”. (l. 1)

The narrator reveals us his thoughts directly and he is not afraid to share embarrassing moments of his life: “Janet had kicked up a fuss, also as usual. “Don’t you dare come home drunk, or you’ll sleep in the garden shed... ” (ll. 2-3)

Some of the stories I had heard before, but there were always enough new ones to hold me spellbound. I filed them away in my memory, to use in the pubs for the next year until he came back with more. (ll. 48-50)

By analysing Mac’s thoughts, we discover a very self-critical man: “This was hitting far too close to home. I’d been writing as much about myself as about the Hornbill. But I nodded, and he conti...