Point of View and Narration

"Spunk" is structured as a series of stories within a story, and it has different levels of narration. At the heart of the story are Spunk, Joe, and Lena—the two men and the woman they both love. Of the three, Lena never speaks on-stage, although well over half of the story is told as direct speech. Joe speaks only once, and the words he says are his last on earth: "Well, Ah'm goin' after her to-day. Ah'm goin' an' fetch her back. Spunk's done gone too fur."

Spunk, the central character, speaks three lines, when he takes the other men to see Joe's body and announces calmly, "Joe come out there wid a meat axe an' made me kill him."

Most of the action of the story is related by Elijah, gossiping with Walter and the other men at the village store...