Point of View

Because The Refugees is a collection of short stories, the point of view shifts from story to story.

"Black Eyed Women": The story appears to be narrated in first-person, past tense by the unnamed protagonist. However, in the middle of the story, the narrator stops and speaks directly to the reader in present tense. This meta-textual moment creates a narrative that is being narrated in the present, but the main events of the story happen in the past.

"The Other Man": This story is narrated in third-person, past tense. The narrator is limited-omniscient, and the reader can only see the internal thoughts and reasonings of the protagonist, Liem.

"War Years": This story is narrated by the unnamed protagonist. The narrator tells the story in the past tense, so while the events of the story happened during the narrator's teenage years, the narrator himself is an...