Land of the Lost

The main character in the short story “Land of the Lost” written by Steward O’Nan, is an elder woman. Throughout the entire short story we do not get to know her name or a description of how she looks. She works as a cashier at a BI-LO and lives alone with her German shepherd Ollie, her two sons moved out shortly after their parents got a divorce. Even though we do not get a lot to know about her looks, we get a lot of knowledge on her way of thinking and her mental state. Even though she is mentally stable, she is tremendously dedicated to a case in the media about a missing girl. She is at a point where it is more of an obsession to find her than it is a hobby or occupation she does when she have the time. She is so dedicated to this cause that she enrolled her dog Ollie in a course for sniffer dogs and beside of that she turns her older boy’s room into a command center. The reason for that is because she wants to feel important and accomplish something. She spends most of her time talking about the case and it got so severe that her boss at the BI-LO asked her to stop talking about it with the costumers. When she finally stops talking about it she begins to rethink her strategies and stockpile supplies that she will need in her search for the lost girl. The main character is well aware of how her dedication looks for other people that sees it; they would think she is stupid or crazy. That is the reason why she did not tell anyone about it before she had a suspicion about where the body was. After failing the first time in her search for the girl, she gets quiet paranoid and does not want to call anybody before she has made sure that it is a human body that she had found. She does not think rationally at this point because she is so dedicated and emotionally involved in the case.
The point of view in the short story is a third person and all-knowing teller. That way we get to know her feelings and emotion even though it is not from her point of view. It is a