What is the author's style in On Discovery by Maxine Hong Kingston?

"On Discovery" is narrated in the third person. The narrator presents a limited point of view, staying on the surface of the story and not allowing readers access to Tang Ao's or the women's unspoken thoughts. Tang Ao therefore remains a flat, or undeveloped, character about whom the readers do not learn much.

The narrator is an unreliable narrator in that it is difficult for readers to know whether or not to believe what the narrator is saying The narrator says that "On Discovery" is both fairy tale and fact, fantastic yet true. The form of the story, too, mixes genres, beginning as a fairy tale and ending as a historical document. The subject of "On Discovery" is clearly epic-the discovery of anew land by a brave Chinese adventurer-but the narrator's treatment of the subject is decidedly not