The narrator

The narrator is also the main character in John Steinbeck’s short story “Breakfast”. The narrator’s name and outer characterization are absent from the story. This helps highlight that the focus is the narrator’s single memory about a breakfast he shared with three strangers. Furthermore, this can also help readers focus on the action and on the deeper meanings of the encounter. The narrator’s lack of identity also helps to stress the idea that there are actions which bring people together despite potential differences in experiences or social background, and the scene of the shared breakfast further points to this.

The narrator's occupation is also unclear. We know he is not there picking cotton (ll. 54-55), nor does he want a job in cotton picking (ll. 78-80). This suggests that he is not a migrant worker himself. The narrator might be a traveler or, by his detailed descriptions of the landscape around him, a writer.

At the beginning, the narrator states:

This thing fills me with pleasure. I don’t know why, I can see ...