Point of View

Brighton Rock is told from a third person omniscient point of view. As such, the narration shifts from person to person, with the narrator always aware of the internal life of the central character in the chapter. Each of the thirty-one chapters of the novel has a central figure to whom the narrator is most privy, though on occasion Greene will provide the thoughts and emotional life of two characters who are closely bound.

By and large, the narrative is told alternately focusing on Ida Arnold, Pinkie, and Rose. Other characters - Spicer, Cubitt, Dallow, Phil Corkery, Hale - sometimes take center stage in moments of great personal peril. This generally involves physical danger, fear, or guilt. At times, the narrator seems to understand, simultaneously, the thought processes of both Rose and Pinky. These two, it seems, feed off each other's overwhelming guilt. The writing, in...