Point of View

Fried uses various points of view throughout his stories. He utilizes mostly first person narration as well as first person plural narration. “Life in the Harem, The Misery Of The Conquistador, The Frenchman and Lie Down And Die” all have an individual, unnamed narrator. In these stories, the action follows their point of view and experience, analyzing the personal difficulties they face. There is minimal description in these stories of how the other characters are feeling or what their experiences are. They are very much in the background, and only discussed in relation to the narrator.

In “Loeka Discovered, Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre, Those of Us in Plaid, The Siege and The Scribes’ Lament”, Fried tells these stories through using first person plural narration. In “Those of Us in Plaid” and “The Siege”, Fried utilizes the collective voice to highlight division and portray an “Us...