Narrator and point of view

The short story “Gideon” by ZZ Packer is a first-person narration. The storyteller is one of the main characters in the text, an African-American woman.

However, the narrator recounts the events much later after they happened. Consequently, the narrator is older and different than she was at the time of the events: “You know what I mean? I was nineteen and crazy back then. I'd met this Jewish guy with this really Jewish name: Gideon.” (p. 152, ll. 1-2)

The narrator already knows what happened, because she presents past events that happened to her. This is also suggested by the reference to “that one day” (p. 153, l. 27) or “that night” (p. 153, l. 37).

The narrator is reliable because she lived the events she is recounting, which she presents f...