Point of View

In Akhil Sharma's short story, "Surrounded by Sleep", he tells the story of a young Indian boy, Ajay's, elder brother's drowning accident which leaves him brain dead.  This short story is told in third person.  I really liked the writing.  I especially enjoyed the way God was potrayed as "look[ing] like Clark Kent.  He wore a grey cardigan, slacks, and thick glasses, and had a forelock that curled up just like Ajay's did" (Sharma).  I feel like this description emphasizes Ajay's youthful innocence and the simplicity of God through the eyes of a child.  Ajay's mother sees his idea of God as a superhero as ridiculous and insulting.  She bends over backwards to appeal to any deity, be it Jesus, Jehovah, or Krishna, to help her drowned son.  However, when her son suggests God is Superman, she brushes his ideas aside.  I like the fact that it seems like Ajay sees God as a relatable figure; someone he can talk to and confide in.  It takes away the daunting aspects of religion and only leaves the important thing, any sort of connection that makes the individual feel like they are being heard.

I also loved the way the author portrayed the deterioration of the family's strength.  Immediately after the accident, she throws herself into any faith she can.  She clings to religion as if she hopes if she tries appeals to the right power, her son will be saved.  As the story progresses, she grows "severe and unforgiving" (Sharma).  She goes through her daily motions and then cries in her room alone because "people will cry with you once, and they will cry with you a second time.  But if you cry a third time, people will say you are boring and always crying," (Sharma).  That quote broke my heart because it becomes clear that the people whose emotional support she needs most, aren't there to support her.  I love the way the author implied that relations with Ajay's aunt and uncle were strained without directly addressing it.  Additionally, I appreciated the way Akhil Sharma showed Ajay's father's downward slide with the increased frequency of his trips to the bar.  It is suggested that the man did not drink before the tragedy as "Ajay had never seen anybody drink except in movies" (Sharma).  That fact really emphasized how bad things were for the family.

Akhil Sharma wrote another short story about the same incidence titled "The Mistake".  This one is written in first person and uses different names for the characters.  "The Mistake" begins when the main character's family still lives in India.  It tells the story of their immigration to American, the assimilation process, and the main character's older brother's effort to get into the Bronx High School of Science.   This story ends with the brother in the hospital, whereas the other story places that event much earlier.

I appreciated the fact that the narrator did not have a strong emotional reaction to his brother's accident, not because he didn't care, but because he didn't think anything really bad could happen.  This exemplifies the mindset held by almost all children and teenagers that "it couldn't happen to me".  I feel like having the narrator inadvertently portray this phenomenon made him distinctly human and clearly young.

I, personally felt more of a connection to the third person story.  Perhaps because I read it first, so I did not already know where the story was going.  I felt like the descriptions of the characters' behaviors and appearance implied more emotional depth than straight out talking in first person.  This could also be because the first person narrator  was a child who did not fully grasp the magnitude of the situation.