Judith Whites' short story 'Soul Searching' is the story of a teenage girl on holiday with her family in Nepal. While there she meets a strange man whom she feels an instant attraction towards. The story is told through first person narrative with the teenage girl as the author. It is almost as though we are reading an entry into her diary. By reading the almost personal story she is retelling, the reader is able to gain a certain type of forbidden access into the mind and thoughts of the author. She tells the reader early on that the story is all about love " I'm not talking about sex - I mean love". From this we know that it will be a very emotional story as love is one of the most powerful emotions of all.
Her story starts by telling the reader how, ultimately, small they, as people are, not once but twice. First she compares us with the universe, telling us how insignificant we are and then again by saying " the Earth is enormous". By showing us how small we are in comparison it helps to build on how big she views love and fate as being. Fate plays a large part in the events that unfold in her tale and this is what gives the story its intended impact. The story is written in such a way that it relies on a readers beliefs and works on their emotions. If a reader comes to it having no belief in fated events then they will possibly take little emotional attachment away from having read it. On the other hand if a person who believes in fated events and destiny reads her story they may have a greater sense of belief behind the events unfolding and see them as something that could really have happened. By writing this story in the first person and making it about love and chance meetings, it seems more a tale of reality than one of fiction. Because of this the reader is more easily pulled into the story and gains a greater emotional attachment to the characters within.
The story begins with a neutral gaze, giving no indication of the authors' gender or sexuality.