Point of View

The point of view of Where Reasons End is first person and told from the mother’s standpoint. The “I” perspective narrates the work, and readers understand the mother is undergoing the events of the story, ones that focus on how her mind is working the weeks following her son’s suicide. The mother is conscious that the story is being told and that readers have access to her thoughts. While she does not directly address the audience, she makes us aware that “what I was doing was what I had always been doing: writing stories. In this one the child Nikolai. . .and his mother dear meet in a world unspecified in time and space” (5). The mother is also conscious that “the world might think I was becoming unhinged” (5).

The breakage of the fourth wall actually serves to keep the mother as a reliable narrator...