Point of View

"The Center of the Story" is written from the third person point of view. This third person narrator follows the experience of the woman as she tries to "think where the center of the story [she has written] might be" (173). The more the woman considers her creative project, the more indistinguishable her thoughts, feelings, and experiences become from those of the woman in her fictional work. The third person perspective allows this blur between the woman's story and Davis's story. In the latter paragraphs of the narrative, for example, after the narrator describes the woman's visit to the Baptist church, she says: "In fact, close to the center of the story may be the moment when she realizes that, even though she is not a believer, she has an unusual, religious sort of peace in her" (176). In a passage such as this one, the third...