In the story, “Sunday in the Park” by Bel Kaufman the characters introduced is a women (narrator/protagonist), who is with Morton (husband), and her three year old child (Larry) in the park on a pleasant Sunday evening. In the park there is another child (Joe) who is playing near Larry and starts to throw sand at Larry. The women says not to throw sand because it may heart someone’s eyes. Morton stands up from his bench and wants to stop this fight; the big man (Joe’s father) says, “go ahead, Joe” (Kaufman, 2).
The women doesn’t try to stop because she wants Larry to stand up for himself. Eventually, dragging his feet Larry is taken home, by the women and Morton, even though he wants to play. The significance of shaping the story, “Sunday in the Park” is identified through the point of view (third person omniscient) and the setting. In this story, the point of view is classified by the third person view who’s the women, possibly the narrator and the mother of Larry.
For example, the women says “her first instinct was to rush to her son, brush the sand out of his hair, and punish the other child, but she controlled it. She always said that she wanted Larry to learn to fight his own battles” (Kaufman, 2). This example signifies the point of view made by the women who wants her son to be brave standing up for himself and taking this situation under control by himself. The women as a mother and wife feels a little comfort of the fight being restrained.
Most importantly, forming a sense of feeling in liability for her husband and her responsibility of taking care for their son’s raising in serious consequences so that Larry could have tried to utilize bigger problems in this situations. The another significance to shaping this story is the setting, the place where and when how it affected the story. For example the narrator mentions, “it was five-thirty of a Sunday afternoon, … was all but deserted. The swings and seesaws stood motionless and abandoned, the slides were empty, and only in the sandbox two little boys squatted diligently side by side” (Kaufman, 1).
From this interpretation the narrator’s setting implies the playground is very quiet and pleasant even on the Sunday evening; usually being occupied with children on Sunday, being holidays. The narrator outlines their audience to reflect the consequences that arose just from the child throwing sand on a quiet beautiful Sunday evening in the park or playground. Therefore, the point of view and the setting of the place signifies the shaping of the story “Sunday in the Park” by Bel Kaufman.
This is because the point of view from all different characters show distinctive meanings through their mind in which they observe their own perspective view points of the situation. The setting as well makes a difference in which the characters enjoy being in the certain place on certain time or not. The story might have had different points of view and the setting affecting their characters if the point of view would be drawn from Morton’s perspective and maybe the setting of place in an eventful Saturday evening playground.
