Point of View

The short story is written from Okenwa's first person point of view. This narrative vantage allows the reader access to the most intimate facets of his consciousness. The first person perspective also inspires the narrative movements from present to past. The passages set in the past are driven by Okenwa's immersion in the memories of his former relationships with his parents and Raphael. In the narrative present, Okenwa maintains a rather cool and detached narrative tone, enacting the way he is "submerged in the foggy lull of [his] parents' storytelling," while remaining emotionally unaffected by it (2). However, as soon as his mother mentions Raphael's name, Okenwa is struck into engagement by "the sharp awakening of memory" (2). His mother’s story inspires thoughts of Raphael, and thus triggers the temporal shift out of Okenwa’s parents’ apartment and into scenes from his childhood home. "But I...