Narrator and point of view

The short story “The Mother of the Child in Question” by Doris Lessing is told from the point of view of a third-person narrator. The story is told entirely from Stephen’s perspective, so the narrator is limited. 

The narrator does not have access into the minds of other characters and makes several assumptions about them. For instance, he assumes that Hassan “was running from a situation he hated: his whole body shouted it” (p. 154, ll. 39-40). It seems likely that Hassan is eager to escape from the social worker and his intrusive questions. 

The narrator is also subjective. For example, the narrator presents Stephen’s prejudices about the Kahn family such as his belief that the father is the one making all the decisions, or that the house is clean only because the family wants to impress him.

The narrative is mostly...