Narrative View of The Reencounter

In the Reencounter by Isaac Bashevis Singer, he tells the story of two people, Dr. Max Greitzer and Liza Nestling. It begins when Dr. Greitzer receives a phone call that his once lover Liza Nestling is dead. At first we think that Liza is the only one that is dead, but both of the characters are actually dead. Dr. Greitzer at first does not know this of himself, but is later told by Liza that in fact he is dead too. Though one of many things the story does not prevail is how they both died.

I think this story is written about the in between time of a person death and heading to the afterlife. Singer writes this in a third person objective point of view. Meaning that an outside person is telling the story as it happens with no extra information given about the characters of the events that happen previous or in the future.

Both characters are found at Liza's funeral, where they both finally realize that they are dead and begin to talk about the afterlife in which they are heading. Liza asks, "Is this what they call death. It's the same city, the same streets the same stores. I seem the same, too" Max replies "Yes but without a body" (239). They then continue to talk about the situation at hand, to the end where they seem like they are starting to leave and continue to the next phase. "They began to rise without purpose, without destination" (240-1).

Though through the whole story we are never told anything about the two characters. We know nothing of the previous relationship. Like I mentioned before there is no information on how they both died. Also no information on what happens in the end. We can only assume what happened throughout the story. I think this is exactly why Singer wrote this story in the objective point of view because we do not know what will happen in the end, it is open to our interpretation. If Singer would have wrote this in any other point of view it might make sense, but it would lose the meaning and mystery it has. By knowing all the information about the characters and what they thought or how it ended for them, it would have a different meaning. I think Singer wrote it this way so we could write the ending, make it the way we want it to end.