When a narrator shows the readers the events of a story without telling us how to interpret them, we can speak of indirect narration. It is the opposite of direct narration, where the narrator tells the reader how to interpret events. Here is an example of indirect narration from Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemmingway. 

The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down on the damp felt pads. "The train comes in five minutes," she said. 
"What did she say?" asked the girl. 
"That the train is coming in five minutes."

Notice that this story is told as if the narrator is filming from behind a camera. The dialogue seems pointlessly repetitive. We call such an extreme version of indirect narration 'fly-on-the-wall' narration. It is very objective and not emotionally involved.

Related lessons

• Narrative technique