Point of View

This book is told straightforwardly from the point of view of Robert Peck, the boy who is also the adult author. There is a great deal of humor realizing that the author deliberately writes from the boy's limited point of view even though as a grownup he knows better. For example, Robert has suffered from the ill temper of the Widow Bascom when she whacks him hard with a broom when he runs across her strawberry patch. Later, he listens to his family gossip about the widow and how she giggles at night with the hired man. From the boy's point of view, as a child he doesn't understand the implications of that, though the adults do and so does the author. The boy just concludes that the giggling has "some improved" the widow.

When the boar Samson comes to breed Pinky, at first Robert is...