Narrator and point of view

The short story “Dancing to Nat King Cole” by James Wall is told by a third-person narrator who uses the point of view of Katherine Simpson to render the events. Note that the narrator is not involved in the story and only functions as an observer.

The narrator is limited to Katherine’s point of view and presents the events from her perspective:

She slowly chews her rasher of bacon in the quiet before the TV volume in the living room increases and she can hear every word of the news. She closes her eyes and breathes in slowly and deeply, and then reaches for her cup of tea. (ll. 23-25)

The narrator’s knowledge about the events is limited to what Katherine experiences. For instance, we only find out about Charles’ disease from what Katherine reveals ...