What is the perspective in the nonfiction book, The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World?

The book is, for the most part, written in the formal, academic third-person, although there are notable exceptions. In Part One, for example, Hyde writes as a scholar and his perspective is that of an independent researcher seeking to frame and subsequently answer a very specific set of interlocking theoretical questions. By and large these questions pertain to gift exchange and the effects it may have on art and creativity in the modern world.

At certain points, most notably in the introduction and the conclusion, Hyde departs from the formal, academic third-person and adopts the first-person perspective. His intent in doing so is to provide some context for the analyses contained in the middle sections of the book. This first-person perspective also provides his readers with a sense of the stakes involved in his project as well as the set of personal, individual experiences that led him to his investigations regarding the gift, gift exchange, and the commodification of art in contemporary society.