The School

This is Lena Gruber.

"The School," by Donald Barthlme, is a short story that is narrated by a teacher of a school. The narrator is speaking directly to the reader using "you" and even expects the reader to fill in what the narrator leaves out. He uses "you know" even though the reader does not actually know and must imagine what the narrator means and must make his/her own assumptions about the bizarre deaths that are taking place within the school or that are connected to the school somehow.
The narrator speaks about the deaths casually, never really questioning whether the deaths are due to the class' behavior in someway; it is the job of the reader to question the deaths if he/she wishes to. The story thus depends on the reader's assumption and will to fill in the blanks. The reader must make sense of the story that doesn't exactly have a conclusion/resolution because there really isn't one given by the narrator, which links back to the confusion that the class has between the meaning of death and life due to their teacher.
In conclusion, the reader plays an important role in the story.