Another important point concerning the narrator is his role in the story as a character, which is at least as importnat as his role as narrator: he is both the 'sentient centre' and the main character. His importance as a character will be more fully discussed in an analysis of the structural relationships between characters. For the moment certain details may be usefully emphasised. He is at first curiously passive, even inert, but then attempts to take his fate into his own hands. He wears glasses, he is gramotnyy, he is interested in politics and is isolated from the milieu in which he finds himself. All these details are commonplaces of Babel criticism, but their precise function in this story has nowhere been fully discussed. For the moment they are merely mentioned, to be returned to later.

There would seem to be three central elements in Babel's...