Literary Style

Manuel Rojas began writing at the mid-point of the Naturalist Period in the history of Chilean literature. Naturalism is an extreme type of Realism in which the writer portrays the most grisly aspects of human nature. The characters in such stories usually come from the lowest stratum of society and their behavior is often unsavory.

Point of View

The storyteller in "The Glass of Milk" is a limited third-person narrator, sometimes called a non-participant narrator. A third-person narrator is one who is able to see all the actions of all the characters, all the time. But in this tale, it is limited because the narrator does not reveal what is happening inside the mind of every character, only that of the youth.

Setting

The setting for the story is the waterfront of a seaport on the Chilean coast. This area includes the wharf, some of the streets...