Point of View

All three of the stories are told from the third-person perspective, however the exact style of narration differs in each. "Spotted Horses" is the most conventional and straightforward in this regard. The narrator is completely impersonal and objective. The narration does not exclusively follow any one character and shifts between various vantage points in order to convey the story.

"The Old Man" employs a more complex narrative style. The account of the tall convict's adventure down the flooded river is interleaved with bits of conversation with the fat convict, whom he is telling the tale after he has returned to prison. This style of alternating narration has two effects. First, the reader knows how the adventure will end before the story has been fully told. It is even mentioned that he received more time in prison for attempted escape. This knowledge colors the rest of the...