"Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night" is told in the first person by Sophie, the main character. This point of view serves an important purpose because the story is about Sophie, her spiritual life, and her emotional life, as well as about her art. What matters throughout the tale are Sophie's perceptions, and the first-person narration leaves the audience with only Sophie's perceptions. It is crucial to understand why this must be so to remember that the experience in the desert is entirely in dreams, interspersed among waking periods that for Sophie can be as dreamlike as dreams. In fact, she notes that dreams can be as real for her as waking life is. Thus, the audience is treated to a tale that is as much experience as it is plot and characterization.

The experience is that of dreams, with characters that shift and change forms...