Point of View in "The Interlopers"

In "The Interlopers" by Saki, the story is told from a third person omniscient point of view. This is important since the narrator is able to relay what Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym are thinking about at the time and that the narrator is able to tell the reader the back story as to why the two men are fighting over the plot of land. However the narrator shows more bias toward Gradwitz in that the back story is provided with him as the main character and that the narrator shows Gradwitz thoughts more frequently than that of Znaeyn. Although the bias does create some problems in knowing Zneayn's complete thoughts, the third person omniscient point of view provides a more complete and objective view on the justifications to the actions of the characters than what can be provided from by a first person point of view. This is very evident when Gradwitz and Znaeym were face to face but did not shoot each other. The narrator provides context to the situation in that the two men did not want to shoot there enemy in cold blood without speaking a word. Without the omniscient point of view, the reader would be confused as to why both men just glared at each other until the tree fell on them. Another example of when the third person omniscient point of view proves to be a crucial part of the story is when the narrator says both men refering to Gradwitz and Znaeym. The narrator repeats the word both to the describe how both men were very similar to each other in thoughts and emotions. This creates both tension and acceptance between the characters since both would have very similar thoughts. Finally the use of third person expanse on the idea that even thought both men were bitter enemies, the reader could see that they had many things in common, allowing them to become friends by the end of the story. Had the story been in first person or third person limited, the reader would not be able to see any similarities in the personality and thoughts of the characters. Saki refering to the men as both shows that they are essentially one single entity and had the men made an attempt to understand one another earlier, the events of the story would have not taken place and the conflict would have ended.