In a grove

The theme of subjectivity is most notably expressed through the story's unconventional structure. In place of an objective third-person authorial presence, Akutagawa chooses to convey the events of "In a Grove" through individual testimonies and confessions, each of which are inherently limited by subjective perspectives. Subjectivity becomes increasingly relevant as the story progresses and the reader is exposed to contradictory information. Each character's account sounds reliable and is consistent within its own logic, but when read together, the accounts create a knot of discrepancies that the reader cannot untangle. Without an objective perspective on the story, the reader only has subjective perspectives, none of which can be proved any more true or false than any other.