Characterization of the narrator

The main character in Jan Carson’s short story “The World Ending in Fire” is the unnamed narrator. Although her gender is not revealed, she is most likely a girl as she is friends with Lyndsey and Louise.

 At the time of narrating, she is most likely an adult, but she relates stories from her childhood, when she was around eight to ten years old: “But I was eight at the time, then nine and finally ten” (l. 97). The young narrator lives in Belfast with her parents and brothers (l. 32).

Being so young herself, the narrator has an innocent perspective on the events which stops her from understanding that Mrs Agnew’s behavior is caused by grief. Instead, she only sees that Mrs Agnew has failed her daughter:

I didn’t feel sorry for Lyndsey’s mother. […]

I saved all my sympathy for Lyndsey who was only eight at the time, then nine and finally ten, far too young to take on...