Point of View

“The Little Widow from the Capital” is written from the first person plural point of view of the little widow’s neighbors. This means that the narrator is using pronouns including “we,” “us,” and “our” to represent their collective narrative voice. Although the narrator will at times mention individual members of the collective, including Sonia, Cheryl, Gladys, and Florencia, for example, the narrator never lists all of the women included in this group. Context clues, however, do suggest that the first person plural narrative voice is only representative of the female individuals living in the New York apartment building with the widow.

The first person plural point of view effectively enacts the author’s thematic explorations concerning bias, truth, and guilt. Indeed, the entirety of the first person plural narrator’s account is solely inspired by and interested in the little widow. The narration is...