Narrator and point of view

“Supertoys Last All Summer Long” by Brian Aldiss is told by a third person omniscient narrator. We see this in several ways.

The narrator is able to access the minds of all the central characters. For instance, we see this with Henry Swinton at work: “Take your mind off my wife, you bastard, thought Swinton, still smiling.” (l. 46). This ability to access the thoughts and feelings of the characters is particularly relevant with Monica. We get to see how she is struggling with her life, and it has the effect of making us sympathize with her, at least until the ending. Furthermore, the omniscient narrator means that the point of view changes so we get to see the story from more than one perspective.

Note that although David is the character that we sympathize with the most, we never get any real access to his inner life. Throughout the story we feel sorry for him and ascribe emotions to him such as loneliness or love. However, we never get the same kind of access to David's mind as we do with Monica and Henry. David's struggles are mainly shown to us through his actions (such as running away or grinning silently) and through his dialogue, e.g. with Teddy in ll. 179-194. This choice of mostly staying outside of David's mind suggest...