Point of View

The novel is narrated using an omniscient third-person narrator, one that is not a participant in the events described but has access to the characters' private thoughts and feelings. Though the focus of the novel is on Betsey and her development, the narrator explores the perspectives of various characters at different points in the narrative.

For example, the novel opens with a description of Betsey's house that reveals Betsey's individual thoughts about and experiences of living there. However, this alignment with Betsey's perspective shifts when her mother, Jane, awakens. "Something had to be done with all of these children," the narrator states, expressing Jane's inner thoughts this time. The chapter closes with grandmother Vida's private musings on the family and neighborhood. Thus this chapter, like the novel as a whole, shifts among different perspectives, often focusing on the generational differences between the Brown women. Shange's central...