Narrator and point of view

The short story “The Abortion” by Alice Walker is a third-person account. The narrator is external to the plot and uses the perspective of the characters to convey the events. Most of the narration is built on Imani’s perspective: “In fairness to him, she had to admit he asked her if she thought she was well enough to go. But even to be asked annoyed her.” (p. 153, ll. 23-24)

This suggests a limited-knowledge approach to the plot. We only know what Imani knows and observes. However, at the end of the text, the narrator conveys both Imani and Clarence’s points of view, combining them: “Each of them almost recalled out loud that about this time of the year their aborted child would have been (…) each wanted to think aloud that the marriage would...