Question

Which lines in this excerpt from Anita Desai’s "Games at Twilight" clearly show an omniscient narrator?

They faced the afternoon. It was too hot. Too bright. The white walls of the veranda glared stridently in the sun. The bougainvillea hung about it, purple and magenta, in livid balloons. The garden outside was like a tray made of beaten brass, flattened out on the red gravel and the stony soil in all shades of metal—aluminum, tin, copper, and brass. No life stirred at this arid time of day—the birds still drooped, like dead fruit, in the papery tents of the trees; some squirrels lay limp on the wet earth under the garden tap. The outdoor dog lay stretched as if dead on the veranda mat, his paws and ears and tail all reaching out like dying travelers in search of water. He rolled his eyes at the children—two white marbles rolling in the purple sockets, begging for sympathy—and attempted to lift his tail in a wag but could not. It only twitched and lay still.

Then, perhaps roused by the shrieks of the children, a band of parrots suddenly fell out of the eucalyptus tree, tumbled frantically in the still, sizzling air, then sorted themselves out into battle formation and streaked away across the white sky.

The children, too, felt released. They too began tumbling, shoving, pushing against each other, frantic to start. Start what? Start their business. The business of the children’s day which is—play.

Answer 1

The children, too, felt released. They too began tumbling, shoving, pushing against each other, frantic to start.

Step-by-step explanation:

The word omniscient is taken from the Latin word means "all-knowing'. Thus, an omniscient narrative is the point of view where the narrator knows all the actions, thoughts and feelings of the characters contrary to the first person where the author is a character of the story. This point of view is usually employed to present a platter of different characters with their perspectives that assists the readers to relate to several characters. Thus, when the author uses "they" instead of "you", "me" or "I", it illustrates an omniscient point of view.