Point of View

I Who Have Never Known Men is narrated from the first person point of view of the novel’s unnamed protagonist. Because the narrator possesses sole authority over the narrative world, her version of events and perception of reality dictates the narrative contours and trajectory. Indeed, the narrative itself is the manifestation of the narrator’s work to record her life’s story. At the start of the novel, she says that “I was gradually forgetting my story” (3). Although initially unfazed by this discovery, “since nothing had happened to me,” she soon becomes “shocked by that thought” (3). The narrator’s recent discovery of her own humanity has afforded this emotional response to the notion of losing her story upon her death. “After all, if I was a human being,” she remarks, “my story was as important as that of King Lear or of Prince Hamlet...