Being Wronged

Interactivity in "The Brain Drawing the Bullet"

     A final method in which the theme of characters being wronged is shown in "The Brain Drawing the Bullet" is the use of interactivity. Interactivity, as defined by Mark Stephen Meadows in his book "Pause and Effect", is "a response to a response" (37) where the reader's actions are reciprocated by a reaction of the story. Interactivity is a huge aspect of this story as every time the reader chooses to progress the story, the details of the story change and the narrative becomes a totally different story at the end than it was in the beginning. As shown in the screencast above, whenever the reader clicks the red arrow, the story reacts by adding columns to the editorial and by changing parts of the previous editorial columns. The interactivity of the story causes the view of the narrator to change from guilty to innocent and, in the process, shows that he is being wronged in the narrator's unreliable opinion. 

     Just as the character is being wronged, the interactivity in the story also wrongs the reader by not revealing the truth to them and by putting them at fault as for the unfair treatment of the narrator as well. As the story continues, the unreliability of the narrator grows and the pretenses of the story are increased leaving the reader confused as to what is true and what is a misconception. The reader is also put at fault for the narrator's being wronged because as the reader progresses the story, the narrator tries to prove his innocence and shows that the reader is revealing the (unreliable) truth. The reader's actions cause the changes in the editorial and therefore puts the narrator at fault by making the narrator perceive the murder differently and feel as though he is innocent. Every time the reader interacts with the story, the narrator feels increasingly innocent and views society as treating him unfairly.
 

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