Which aspect does the narrative foreground regarding truth and perception?

• A. The narrator's subjectivity is minimal; truth is objective.
• B. The story is a straightforward, external chronicle.
• C. The narrator's reliability is high and consistent.
• D. The narrative foregrounds the narrator's subjectivity and unreliability.

Answer: (D)

Holden’s story is filtered through his own mind, so the truth we receive isn’t an objective, outside view but a personal, biased impression. He speaks in the first person with slips, digressions, and mood shifts, and he often acknowledges that his memory and judgments aren’t perfectly reliable. This means what counts as “true” in the narrative is constantly being evaluated and reinterpreted through Holden’s perspective.

Because we’re invited to trust his feelings and observations while also noticing their flaws, the reader learns to question what’s being described and to read between the lines. His judgments—about people, places, and events—are colored by his mood, experiences, and struggles, so the narrative foregrounds subjectivity and unreliability rather than presenting a neat, objective account of reality.

This isn’t about a straightforward chronicle of events or about a narrator who is consistently trustworthy. The strength of the piece lies in showing how perception can distort truth, making the narrator’s inner life central to what we understand about the world he moves through.