Point of View

The story is written in past tense, and it has third-person limited narration. The narrator centers on Stein’s perspective of events, since Stein is the protagonist of the story. However, Keret slightly misleads the reader at the beginning of the story through the narration. The first character mentioned at the beginning is “Davidoff” (75). This causes the reader to believe that Davidoff is the protagonist of the story. However, as the story progresses, the reader realizes that Stein is the protagonist, because Stein is the one who is chosen to join the Border Police regiment. It could be argued that Keret uses this misdirection to present the notion that there are no protagonists in the army, and all soldiers are of equal standing.

The limited narration is evident through the fact that the narrator does not introduce new characters that Stein meets by name unless...