“The Custodian” is a short story written by Brian Hinshaw. Hinshaw writes about a janitor who works in a nursing home. The story starts off with an intriguing beginning and ends with an unpleasant surprise. To find the meaning behind this story, there needs to be an analysis conducted of the characters, plot, point of view, and theme.
There are three main characters in “The Custodian.” The first character is the janitor. He is described in the story as a man who takes advantage of one of the residents during his daily routine of mopping the resident’s room. The Janitor is a round character because he surprises the reader at the end of the story by showing in actuality how much he harassed the resident. The second character is the elderly lady, known as, “14-A.” She has a case of dementia that hinders her ability to remember things. The elderly lady is a flat character due to her not changing throughout the story. The third and final character is the daughter of the elderly lady. The daughter is only briefly mentioned at the end of the story, but plays an important role in portraying how much the janitor
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The use of first-person point of view, gave a better understanding of the thoughts coming from the janitor and how he analyzed 14-A’s mental condition throughout the story and used it against her. By using that point of view, the reader is able to dig into the janitor’s reasoning for wanting to mistreat 14-A as he had done. The janitor’s point of view has no limitations due to him being the main character and his being able to speak to the elderly lady in the story. Hinshaw uses the first-person point of view to reveal what is going on in the story, instead of not letting the readers know what is going inside of the main character’s mind. Not only is the point of view in the story important, but as a matter as fact so is the