Narrator and point of view

The short story “The Sea Change” by Ernest Hemingway is told entirely in the past tense. For the most part, the story is constructed through dialogue, which is mixed with short fragments of narration by a third-person narrator.

The story begins with dialogue between the main characters, a man and a girl:

‘All right,’ said the man. ‘What about it?’
‘No,’ said the girl, ‘I can’t.’ (ll. 1-2). 

In general, the dialogue is very important for the story as it presents the crisis and transformation the two main characters go through. The characters speak in short, vague sentences, which give readers a sense of intimacy and mystery.

The third-person narrator completes the dialogue with various details about the characters and their interaction: the way they look at each other, the tone of their voices, the gestures they make: ...