Point of View

The story’s narration is written in the past tense and the first person from James’ perspective. However, one perspective-related quirk that should be noted immediately is the fact that the opening scenes involve only Mother, but James is narrating them in spite of the fact that he is not present in those scenes. This quirk may simply be a temporary suspension of narrative conventions, or the reader may interpret them as constructed by James based on personal conjecture. Regardless, the rest of the story is still narrated by James, and it adheres more strictly to conventions of perspective. The readers have direct access to James’ thoughts and interiority, while such access is not as direct for other characters.

Despite the fact that James is the narrator and point-of-view character, the reader is encouraged to think of James as an unreliable narrator. Although there is...