Narrator and point of view
The short story “Joy Ride” by Toni Pivac is told by a third-person narrator. The narrator is outside the story and is only an observer of the events.
The narrator adopts Whata’s perspective of the events. Therefore, the narrator’s knowledge is limited to what Whata experiences. For example, he does not know what his uncles are doing at the burial ground and tries to understand what he sees: “Behind him, another car rolled up. Two. Three. More of his uncles were arriving, and they too were carrying things. That's weird, thought Whata, as they followed Uncle Dave onto the mountain” (ll. 154-156).
The narrator knows Whata’s thoughts and feelings:
All of a sudden, he wanted to be back on the road. Lying back on the dusty metal of the ute, watching the sky whizz above him. He wanted to be worrying about getting in trouble and how hard the smack...