Narrator and point of view

The short story “The Word Love” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a second-person narration, in which the narrator uses the second-person to refer to herself, which suggests an emotional distance from herself.

The events follow the narrator’s perspective, including her thoughts, feelings, and emotions: “Did you cry out, Don’t be angry, Mother, please? Did you beg forgiveness? Did you whisper (again that word) love?” (p. 4, ll. 16-17);

This implies that the narrator has limited knowledge on the events. She does not know how her mother will react or her boyfriend’s thoughts until they are revealed to her: “You try to tell yourself that he wants to hurt you only because he’s hurting, because he’s jealous of how much she means to you.”  (p. 2, ll. 11-12)

The narrative voice resembles a stream of c...