Point of View

The story’s narration is written in the third person and the past tense. The story’s main point-of-view character is Henry Steavens, as he is the only character whose thoughts are ever conveyed directly to the reader. Henry is an effective point-of-view character because he is an outsider in relation to Sand City. Thus, Henry and the reader are able to simultaneously discover the main attributes of life in sand City. Moreover, Henry’s thoughts help to convey important pieces of information such as Harvey’s status of great renown. Also notable is the fact that although henry is the main point-of-view character, he is not present in the story at the narrative’s beginning. Thus, the narrative is not always directly tied to Henry’s perspective, but it often accesses his interiority.

Thematically, the story operates upon specific clashes in perspective, and the...