Powerlessness

The author uses the COVID-19 pandemic setting in order to destabilize her narrative world at the outset of the short story. By setting “Face Time” in the 2020 era, the author effectively distorts her unnamed first person narrator’s sense of and relationship to reality. Indeed, if the narrator’s father had gone into surgery during any other era, the narrator would have had the opportunity to be with him throughout his recovery. However, at the start of the story, the reader learns that Dan has not only just emerged from “hip surgery,” but has contracted the coronavirus from the chef at his assisted-living facility, Berrywood (271). This conglomeration of events and circumstances effectively robs the narrator of her power and control. Although she is able to maintain contact with her father via FaceTime, she feels incapable of affecting any real change in his life or offering him...