Thurber narrates in the first person past tense, while frequently reproducing snippets of conversation in dialect. In some instances he is more of an observer than a participant, but is often caught up in the middle of the chaos which is his family life. He branches out to the wider community only while describing the 1913 panic over a supposedly broken dam, his college years at Columbus State University, and his frequent attendance at draft physicals, although from the start his deficient vision results in his being rejected.