Point of View

The book is written from the third-person, but the information available to the narrator is generally limited to what Stoner is aware of. However, by using the third person, William is able to intentionally obscure a lot of Stoner's thoughts from the readers. For example, when Stoner makes the decision to stop studying agriculture in favor of English, the reader is unaware, perhaps shocked, since Stoner's only real experience with English literature seems to have been negative. While Stoner himself was ignorant of his reasons, there were surely some confused notions floating around in his mind about what he wanted to do, but by denying the reader access to those, Williams is able to more clearly show Stoner's ignorance of his own actions. It is only when Stoner consults Sloane that he fully understands why he is doing what he is doing.

The third-person also allows...