What was the point of view in 'Ashes for the Wind'?

Answer 1

The point of view subtly changes. At first, the point of view is limited omniscient (third person) because the narrator is external to the characters but describes Juan's thoughts and feelings. The narrator clearly and frequently tells us things about what "Juan thought." In contrast, the narrator suggests, through inference, the reticence and hesitation of the "cordially sinister" (oxymoron/paradox) "Son of Arevallo," but the narrator does not provide exposition about what the younger Arevallo thinks.

However, near the end of the story, from the paragraph beginning with the words "Everyone did his duty," the "internal perspective" of Juan vanishes, because, of course, Juan is dead: mere "ashes for the wind." His death - or the absence of his "voice" - alters the narrative point of view. One could argue that this the point of view naturally evolves into an objective (third person) one; the narrator is the same but with Juan dead the narration is now merely descriptive. On the other hand, there is some basis to suggest that the author has significantly shifted to an omniscient narrator; the narrator speaks of the policeman's state of mind - enjoying the fire - and that of young Arevallo and the others, who are not enjoying it so much. If the narrator is now omniscient, is this indicative of a god-like detachment from the horrific murder of Juan and his family? The unrelenting dripping of the oil might suggest such an ominously unfeeling, unemotional, cold, uncaring and unstoppable inevitability of death. Alternately, could it be a suggestion that Juan's consciousness - and conscience - survives in this now omniscient narrator, so that Juan now clearly comprehends the unstoppable corruption that sealed his fate and made his resistance doomed from the start.