What is a theme in the passage from the story of a bad boy

third person

explanation:

note the usage of names and pronouns, "james" & "the old man". this alone can confirm it as third person, as first person uses "i" and the like, while second person uses "you" and the like.

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even though there may be variations in human emotions over time, the poem “ a contribution to statistics” by wislawa symborska suggests that the only unchangeable characteristic is mortality.

the author poses a distinction between the approximate and non-approximate numbers which correspond to our need for certainty in life and the difficulty of achieving it. our efforts to measure the exact often fail because the world is not always clearly structured .the poem seems to imply   that the only thing that is certain and has an exact number is death.