Point of View

"The Sky is Gray" is told entirely from the point of view of the eight-year old narrator, James. Consequently, the reader is limited to what James observes and understands. Though he can accurately recall the words of the student in the dentist's office that lead up to the student being hit by the preacher, he cannot understand the argument in which they are engaged ("She just looks at him like she don't know what he's talking 'bout. I know I don't."). The limitations imposed on the narrative by an eight-year-old narrator are more obvious when he tries, unsuccessfully, to understand his mother's frequent mood changes or her mysterious decisions to fight or flee at each of the stations of mood the narrative visits.

But what the narrative loses from one hand it gains in the other. James is sympathetic without being an object of sympathy; the...