Narrator and point of view

The short story “Fusilli” by Graham Swift is narrated in the past tense by an third person narrator. 

The narration is fragmented, which may affect the reader’s understanding of the text. The story covers various timelines, and the narration switches between them several times, breaking the linear progression of the action. Furthermore, the narration focuses on the memories of a grieving father who has experienced a loss that has clearly affected his mental health and who actively tries to avoid thinking about certain events (l. 85). Therefore, the narrator may occasionally be unreliable.

The narrator’s point of view is limited because it is only focused on the father’s state of mind. The feelings of the other characters are presented through their actions and words, and through the father’s view of them. For example, the reader cannot ...