comment on point of view

Margaret Atwood tells her short story collection “Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales” in the third-person limited-omniscient narrative mode, except for the story “Lusus Naturae” which is told from the first-person limited-omniscient point of view. The third person-narrative voice acts as a unifying bridge between each of the stories, as the narrator and her style of speaking are familiar to the reader even if the events of the stories are not. The story “Lusus Naturae”, occurring centuries before the other stories, is told from the point of view of the young woman who is suffering from a mental and physical cat-like affliction. This allows the reader an intimate glimpse into the very human mind and heart of the narrator, even if her physical appearance may not resemble a human being. The limited-omniscient aspect of each of the stories is designed to create a sense of suspense and drama, as readers only learn things as the characters either learn or reveal them. For example, in “The Freeze-Dried Groom”, the reader does not learn that Sam is actually a drug dealer until toward the end of the story, or that he intends to kill the bride-to-be until the closing lines of the story.