The first person narrative technique is immediately apparent in this story as the opening sentence begins with the word we' then goes on to describe a group of boys getting onto a freight train. The implication of this technique is that the author has placed an interpreter of the events between the reader and the events. This means that it is up to the reader to decide whether the accounts are reliable and trustworthy . At this point, it is important to note, that the narrator is trying to come to terms with his youthful desires and frustrations as well as understand the discrepancy between the real and the ideal in life. The narrator's first person account of events also helps to supply the reader with a fully felt anguish and distress of a too sudden realization. Particularly because the language used by the narrator and the descriptions he gives makes the reader aware that he is sensitive and unlike other boys of his age. .
The narrator is trying to understand the world around him by questioning people's values, ideals and how they have a bearing on his problem of wanting to know why'. He wants to know why Negro's are squarer' with kids than white men and why they hold a position of inferiority. He wants to know why Henry Riebeck's father is condemned by the community who, even though he is a gambler can still be a nice man and generous' and he wants to know why people cannot love horses simply because gambling goes on at racetracks. The narrator is rather immature. He is unable to think things out in any great detail and seems to exist within a realm of his own sensations. However by asking these questions it shows the reader that he is slowly moving away from childhood naivety and beginning to understand that there are accepted standards of inferiority and superiority, right and wrong and good and bad that exist within the world . However these standards are inconsistent with his idealistic dreams and because of this he is puzzled.