Point of View

The stories in this collection are told from variety of narrative points of view. Several are written from the third-person omniscient perspective – that is, from the point of view of a narrator who has access to both the inner and outer lives of a number of characters. Stories written from this point of view include “The Martyr” (which includes sections written with focus on both a wealthy white landowner and the black servant whom she kills). This style of narration is different from a third-person limited perspective, which tells the story from the point of view of a narrator who has access to the inner and outer lives of only one character. An example of a story written from this point of view is the first story in the collection, “Mugumo.” Finally, there are a few stories written from the first-person perspective, in which the...