Narrator and point of view

The female narrator in “Lost Boys” by Deborah Moggach tells the story in retrospect—she already knows the events that she is recounting—and uses a limited-knowledge perspective. Consequently, she does not know what the other characters are thinking and only presents what she experiences, knows or finds out, such as her husband’s attitude towards his mother Lily: “He called her untrustworthy. She sent him to boarding school in Sussex. (…) on real visiting days he would stand at the gates, all smartened up, and wait, and wait…” (p. 35, ll. 18-22)

The narrator’s perspective on the events and the characters also changes as a result of the action. At first, she cannot understand her husband’s frustration with his mother, a woman whom she admires deeply.

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