What is so memorable about Paul Harvey's stories is the impact with which one is left long after having read the peice.
His is a perspective which simultaneously realizes the innocence and the experience of the human character. A snapshot of both our potential and our pain. And it is this acceptanece, a simplistic understanding, that allows the essence of the situation to remain with the reader. Thus, initially, the reader must be trusted by the author to be capable of that understanding.
This is Harvey's talent: to assume and place before an audience not only the humanity of his subject, but also of themselves.