Perspectives

Literary perspective

The short story “Born of Man and Woman” by Richard Matheson is a post-modernist literary work. Post-modernist fiction tends to rely on first-person narrators, so readers can have a better view of what the characters experience. This feature can also be seen in Matheson’s story, where the child is both the main character and the narrator. The narrator’s unreliability is also a feature of post-modernism, which makes readers question the reality of what is going on. Post-modernist fiction also tends to focus on ambiguity. In the case of “Born of Man and Woman”, there are no explanations regarding the child’s identity or deformity, but there are hints that the child is a real monster.

The lamguage used in post-modernist fiction is often unique, rejecting tradition. Given than the child has been locked up all its life, it uses broken English to express itself. Finally, the non-chronological timeline is also a post-modernist feature of the story. 

The short sto...