Narrator and point of view

The short story “She’s the Bomb” by T. Coraghessan Boyle is mostly narrated in the present tense. The narrator also makes use of the past tense when he or she recounts Hailey’s memories. For example, “Back in September, when she couldn’t put off her American Lit requirement anymore (…)” (ll. 49-50). The narrator also briefly employs the future tense when describing things that will happen in the story: “(…) we’ll go directly inside her head and attempt to assess the grinding awfulness of this moment (…)” (ll. 95-96).

The narration is mainly from a third-person point of view: “When she glances up from her phone in a tic of annoyance (…)” (l. 14). At the beginning of the story, the narrator directly addresses the readers, drawing them in the story: “If we had a helicopter or, better yet, a drone, we could hover over Hailey Phegler’...