Point of View

The story is written in the past tense and the limited third person, with a consistent focus on the woman’s perspective. The three central characters are the woman, her son, and Pete, and although there is a heavy narrative focus on the relationships between all three of these characters, the narrative consistently adheres to the woman’s perspective. The narrative directly conveys the woman’s thoughts and feelings while representing the thoughts and feelings of the other two characters solely through their words and actions. This focus on the woman’s perspective emphasizes the tensions surrounding her desire to have closer relationships with her son and with Pete. During the scene with the photographs, the woman’s overall outlook becomes explicitly defined by the narration.

Although the story focuses on the woman’s perspective in this way, the overall narrative and thematic thrust of...