Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First Person (Central)
An American Dream is pretty much a personal tour of Rojack's twisted brain. While plenty happens during the course of the novel, a good deal of time is spent solely inside this crazy guy's head. Often, Rojack will just start spewing a string of similes and metaphors until the actual reality of the scene is lost altogether and we're swimming in his interpretation of his experience.
Although Rojack doesn't give any explicit signs that he's an unreliable narrator, we can't help but wonder if he's telling us the whole truth. The guy's a certified liar, after all. Regardless, by giving us such an up-close-and-personal view of Rojack's subconscious, Mailer forces us to question the razor-thin difference between reality and fiction.