Self-Reflexiveness

The post-modern strategy of self-reflexiveness is a tool that can be both harmful and helpful to a story, depending on the novel. It makes the narrator appear human and therefore subject to human error. However, it also creates a personal request by the narrator for the reader to think deeply about the events proposed in the novel, from one person to another. These requests can often make the reader feel uncomfortable, as if he or she is not only evaluating the story, but also evaluating his or her own life as well. Tim O’Brien in In the Lake of the Woods and Art Spiegelman in Maus I and Maus II employ this technique for these very reasons, attempting to form a bond with the reader in the face of true and horrific events that affected each of them personally. By drawing attention to themselves as human, they are admitting their own fallibility and asking us to decide for ourselves the morality and veracity of their characters and their stories.
Art Spiegelman takes an inte...