Point of View

Smiley chooses to use a form of narration known as third-person-limited point of view in "Long Distance." The story is told from the point of view of Kirby alone, by an outside narrator who refers to Kirby in the third person, either by his name, "Kirby," or by third-person pronouns such as "he" or "his." Another way to think about the point of view is that the story is told about Kirby, not by Kirby, as it would be in the first person. The third-person point of view is evident from the first line of Smiley's story: "Kirby Christianson is standing under the shower, fiddling with the hot-water spigot and thinking four apparently simultaneous thoughts."

Throughout the narrative, the reader continues to hear only Kirby's thoughts, as well as to experience the sights and sounds of the story only as Kirby experiences them. By filtering the...