Narrator of "Cloudland"

Like all the protagonists in the collection, the narrator of "Cloudland" is nameless but the reader is able to understand her emotional complexity, particularly through the length of the story. When the story first begins, the reader encounters her in Florida, working part-time at a job that does not require her to exert much effort. Through her time there, the reader is able to learn about her reasons for living in Florida. While she initially masks being in Florida by claiming to be there for practical financial reasons, more is revealed later, as she lost her job teaching at a private girls school in Manhattan. Her faux pas with the girls, sharing cocaine with him, also ties into the larger crux of her character. Having given up her daughter, she is haunted continuously by that loss, even though she is many years and miles removed from...