Point of View

The point of view in Schweblin’s stories ranges from first person to third. In stories such as Preserves, the first person point of view offers valuable insight into the mind of a character struggling with debilitating life decisions. As she weighs her options for her daughter Teresita, the narrator gives the reader insight into her treatment. Additionally, in The Test, the first person narrative allows the audience a similar sense of insight into the mind of the character, forced to perform a morbid task to be let into the group. Schweblin also uses first person to explore the instability of her characters. Many of the narrators of her stories clearly suffer from mental health issues, and these attributes are clearly understood through the perspective of her characters. For example, in Heads Against Concrete, the narrator suffers from some mental instability which makes him want...