Books/movies/etc. where the name(s) of the protagonist(s) are never given

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The first example to come to mind is Fight Club, though by the end it's pretty clear why Edward Norton's character's name isn't mentioned before. I won't spoil it though, in case there are some who've never seen the film.

What about Your Friends & Neighbors? Is the lack of names for the main characters suppose to imply that they're everymen and everywomen, indeed "your friends and neighbors"? (Well okay, the names are given in the end credits, but that's obviously a joke.)

Any other examples?

― Tuomas, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

Waiting for the Barbarians by JM Coetzee - narrator identified simply as a Magistrate.

Also, are there really people who don't know what happens in Fight Club?

― franny glass, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

The true name of the narrator in The Handmaid's Tale, but, again, that makes structural sense at least when you know the ending.

― Anna, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

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Technically each character is named by what they do (O'Neal-"The Driver") or what they wear (Joseph Walsh-"Glasses")

― C. Grisso/McCain, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

bah,

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z6PZRNERL._SS500_.jpg

― C. Grisso/McCain, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

GUYS BE CAREFULL FIGHT CLUB SPOILER!!!!

― nickalicious, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:17 (nineteen years ago)

The leads in Conversations with Other Women are never given names and appear in the credits as "Man" and "Woman."

― jaymc, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:24 (nineteen years ago)

Last Year at Marienbad.

consult decades of academic ruminations for meaning.

― Gukbe, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:27 (nineteen years ago)

Do we ever find out the first (or maiden) name of the second Mrs de Winter in Rebecca?

― Hello Sunshine, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

The real name of the protaganist in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods", but we find out what it is in a later short story (and anyone who's familiar with Norse myths would've guessed it already anyway).

― Roz, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

The protagonist of Philip Roth's last novel, Everyman, was nameless. You can perhaps see why Roth did this.

― G00blar, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:49 (nineteen years ago)

Roddy Piper's character in They Live is never named, and in the credits is just called "Nada".

― The Yellow Kid, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

And of course, Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name", although that's kind of different.

― The Yellow Kid, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:55 (nineteen years ago)

So, plenty of examples. But to get back to the orginal question, Why?

Oh, and Uma's character in Kill Bill, although this is revealed in the second part.

― Hello Sunshine, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

McGann's character in Withnail and I is never named in the film, though he's called Marwood in the script.

I rather like the convention of unnamed characters, though I'm not entirely sure why.

― chap, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and Uma's character in Kill Bill, although this is revealed in the second part.

this is really irritating to me, mostly cuz it serves no purpose. (and isn't her name revealed in the first part, on her plane ticket? and Bill calls her "kiddo" as well, doesn't he?)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

"the invisible man" - ralph ellison.
why?
in this case,the title says it all.
usually it goes as a metaphor neither for an "everyman" character or when the character description is used as an allegory,for general human behaviour/philosophy/psycology

― Zeno, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 20:08 (nineteen years ago)

America never discovers name of the desert horse, which seems to frustrate its rider.

― Abbott, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

Are there any other cases besides Fight Club where the name is eventually revealed as a twist in the story?

― Tuomas, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

Another one: In a book by Louis Sachar, the protagonist (Bradley Chalkers) reads a book called My Parents Didn't Steal an Elephant which has a nameless protagonist. The entirety of My Parents Didn't Steal an Elephantis included in the book proper, There'sA Boy in the Girls Bathroom. It's pretty meta & crazy for a kids' chapter book. The book proper also features Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenter as a significant plot point.

Sachar doesn't talk down to kids. I love him.

― Abbott, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 20:28 (nineteen years ago)

Are there any other cases besides Fight Club where the name is eventually revealed as a twist in the story?

"Mr. Roboto" by Styx

― Pleasant Plains, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 20:46 (nineteen years ago)

More examples...

"Keys," Peter Coyote's character in E.T.
"The Bureaucrat," the protagonist of Swanwick's Stations of the Tide

I don't have enough functioning brain cells to talk about what the anonymity means.

― Rock Hardy, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 20:52 (nineteen years ago)

America never discovers name of the desert horse, which seems to frustrate its rider.

-- Abbott, Tuesday, April 24, 2007 3:11 PM (44 minutes ago)

omg LOL.
also, i remember reading that Sachar as an eleven year old, but don't have such intense recall of it!

― ian, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 20:57 (nineteen years ago)

The entirety of My Parents Didn't Steal an Elephantis included in the book proper, There'sA Boy in the Girls Bathroom. It's pretty meta & crazy for a kids' chapter book.

Abbott, there are quite a lot of children's books/films that use this technique (Neverending Story, for one, which I guess isn't too much of a tangent as the whole thing revolves around the Childlike Empress not having a name). Although I really hate kids, I've often pondered writing an essay on metafiction in children's literature (my dissertation proposal for next year is on metafiction in 'proper' literature, so who knows, maybe I'll get around to it one day).

― emil.y, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

Two Lane Blacktop. The driver, the mechanic, GTO, the girl.

― bear, bear, bear, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

Bastian Balthazar Bux? He's got a name, unless yr referring to bigeyed empress babe.

― Abbott, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 22:42 (nineteen years ago)

Also, I know you're aware, but such a dissertation would not require interacting w/kids one whit. It sounds like a brilliant idea. Do you know the insaniaced 4-books in once Black and White?

― Abbott, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 22:43 (nineteen years ago)

Aye, the empress. I don't know Black and White, but I just tried googling it and it looks pretty interesting, cheers.

― emil.y, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 22:50 (nineteen years ago)

Bresson's "Journal d'un curé de campagne". I guess it adds to the impenetrability and hidden past of Claude Laydu's character.

― Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 02:04 (nineteen years ago)

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Books/movies/etc. where the name(s) of the protagonist(s) are never given - and what does it mean?