Point of View

The short story is written from the third person point of view. The third person narrator primarily follows Bill Pointer's character and consciousness through his stay at Hotel Dahoma, an establishment located in "an old fishing village on the northeast coast of Unguja" (262). At the story's start, the narrator's vantage point appears impartial and removed from the characters. The opening line of the story appears as follows: "The younger man had been lingering for a while near the bar when a timid waitress asked Pointer if he might be willing to share his table" (261). In this introductory line, the narrator begins with her attention on Ned, while her mention of Pointer is syntactically embedded within the line. However, this narrative attention shifts in the lines and paragraphs immediately following as the narrator moves closer to Pointer's psyche.

Indeed, though Ned and Nicola are important members...