"The Shawl," by Louise Erdrich focuses on how the perception of one event changes a man's relationship with his own children and how their lives are affected. The story is given from the point of view of an outsider for the first half which was not actually there for the main event and for the remainder of the story the narrator is the oldest grandson of Anakwad. Rather than allow readers to be given the point of view of a character that was more involved in the first half of the story, the beginning is based off of someone reflecting on rumors of a woman named Anakwad who was an Anishinaabeg. Erdrich often provides different point of views in her novels and short stories, such as the many narrations in Love Medicine. In fact, it can be argued that the point of view is continuous and never changes at all. Erdrich's deliberate choice of not expressing the tale by a more involved character makes interpretation of characters difficult, however allows the conclusion of the story to have a more profound, and more ethical interpretation.
Specifically, Anakwad is a prominent character in the first half, and the entire short story revolves around how her son contemplates and is affected by her possible actions. However, very little details are given about Anakwad as a character. Various point of views allow the reader to think like a character, and determine what motivates them, and predict how they would act in certain situations. The text reveals a miniscule amount of information about Anakwad which was that she loved another man other than her husband and left him. Other than that Anakwad's name itself is described in the text "cloud, and like a cloud she was changeable ¦ moody and sullen one moment" (Erdrich 70). The text simply does not provide enough information to prove her possible motives, or evaluate her accurately as a character. In addition to Anakwad, the point of view prohibits the opportunity to accurately determine how An...