Narrator and point of view

The short story “Farida’s Eyes” by Leila Aboulela is told by a third-person narrator who has access to Farida’s thoughts and feelings. For example, the narrator follows Farida’s stream of consciousness as her terror mounts to such an extent that she imagines going completely blind soon: “What if her eyesight kept getting worse? What if she became completely blind? She would be groping in the dark – no school, no books, no cinema. Just voices and sounds.” (ll. 109-111). Here, the narrative voice imagines a future possibility which never happens. 

Since the story is told from Farida’s perspective, the narrator has limited knowledge of the events. For example, the narrator reports Farida’s assumption that she will be bullied at school because of her glasses. This proves untrue at the end, as only a few girls react to ...