Point of View

The short story is written from the third person point of view. Throughout the short story, this third person narrator primarily assumes an omniscient stance. This means that the narrator is an entity who exists outside and beyond the confines of the narrative world. Although she often shifts her attention or gaze closest to Dengue Boy’s life, experiences, and consciousness, she is not limited to or by Dengue Boy’s singular point of view. Neither is the narrator restricted by another character’s perception of reality.

A prime example of this distinct narrative style appears in the latter third of the short story when Dengue Boy is being harassed by the boys at camp. Instead of simply describing this pivotal and climactic scene as it happens, the narrator suspends the narrative’s temporal progression and comments upon the scene before having rendered it: “Oh...