Point of View

This novella is told from the point of view of a first-person narrator. Consider the opening sentence: “When I left Providence (Rhode Island) in early December, the first fall of snow already lay buried beneath the second, and the second fall beneath the third” (3). It is a frame story with the actual story line, that of Enrique’s dousing, being interrupted by various stories that Kent has heard about each character and sometimes about characters related to those characters. Kent knows only what he sees and experiences, but even what he sees and experiences is not always what is really happening. For instance, when Enrique is drenched, Kent believes the drenching was done by water falling from the awning of the cafe. In reality, Enrique was drenched when he tried to embrace the beautiful girl he had met even though she warned him not to...