Narrator and point of view

The short story “Chef’s House” by Raymond Carver is told entirely in past tense and is a first-person narration. The narrator is Edna, one of the two main characters, who uses her perspective to recount past events from a summer she spends with her estranged husband, Wes.

One interesting detail is that the dialogue between the characters is not within quotation marks, giving us the impression that the narrator is recounting the events as if she was speaking to another person about an episode from her life. This gives the narrative a more natural flow, making it more realistic.  

Although the narrator sometimes includes her feelings in the narration: “I found myself wishing the summer wouldn’t end.” (ll. 25-26), this is a rare occurrence. However, the narrator shares her inne...