Shoeless Joe: First Person Narration

Shoeless joe is told in a first person narrative point of view in which Ray Kinsella is the narrator and main character. Since Ray is the narrator he tells the story and sometimes intervenes his own personal stories and memories into the storyline. This limits us from seeing the story’s issues from a single point of view and doesn’t allow us to see other characters ideas or opinions creating a bias towards Ray. For example, when Shoeless Joe asks J.D. Salinger to go with them after the game Ray gets angry and intervenes the story line with a childhood memory, “I remember once, as a child, I invited two friends over to play with a board-game I had been given for Christmas. In a short time, they discovered it was more fun with only two players. They played. I watched and was outraged at their betrayal, which they seemed not to even realize.” By having this in the storyline it makes the reader create sympathy for Ray regardless of the reasons behind Shoeless Joe asking Salinger to go with them.

Throughout the story it is clear the Ray loves Annie very much but, he does put a lot of stress onto her with all the time he spends on the field and the little time he spends back at the house with Annie and leaves her a big farm and daughter to take care of while he is always away traveling to pursue his dreams. Also throughout the book Shoeless Joe it does touch on how Annie feels on some of the things, she is always supportive of Ray saying things like “if it makes you happy you should do it” to him but it would be interesting to see if that is how she internally feels. It would be really different to fill all of the