Characterization of the narrator

The main character of the short story “The Disaster Store” by Helen Phillips is an unnamed woman who is also the story’s narrator.

The narrator is married and has two children, a boy and a girl. We do not know the names of her husband and children. We only know that her daughter is six year old. At the time of the narrative, the narrator is with her daughter in a disaster store, buying emergency supplies for an upcoming disastrous event.

The effects of climate change make the narrator anxious. She knows how to interpret the weather and feels that “there is much to fear” because of the warmth of the day. Her anxiety and sense of urgency pressure her to pay attention to the salesman, who presents a flotation device meant for children:

But I do not want the salesman to abandon us because we seem like capricious customers—like a permissive mother and a spoiled child who may, at any instant, decide not to care about the momentousness of the moment.

The narrator is aware of the importance of buying the necessary protective equipment and is devastated when she has to go into credit card debt for it: “He stares me down before citing a number that, multiplied by four, brings tears to my eyes”. ...