Narrator and point of view

The short story “The Sentry” by Téa Obreht is a third-person narration. The narrator, who is outside the plot, uses Bojan’s perspective to convey the events and encourage readers to relate to Bojan. However, the story is also told in retrospect. The events happened years before, as the narrator knows how the characters' lives turn out later on. 

The use of Bojan’s point of view is indicated by references to both his thoughts and memories as a child and his reflections as he grew up: “His one coherent thought in the park had been a silent longing for the mastiff, the huge, defensive hulk of it, the alliance he still hoped might shift…” (ll. 117-118); “This was years before newspaper reports surfaced, years before photographs of barbed-wire comp...