Point of View

The text is related from the first-person, omniscient point of view. The point of view utilized is simultaneously interesting and problematic - biography is typically presented in from detached third-person point of view and restricted to a limited recounting of historical facts. In the text, however, the narrator is presented as the meta-author and claims especial insight into the thoughts, motivations, and private moments of those ancestors selected for biographical inclusion. This exclusive insight does not extend into all realms, however, and is generally limited to those aspects of character development, which lead the text into an interesting fusion of biography and fictive elements. The point of view selected is appropriate and insightful, and allows the biography to be presented as a culturally-appropriate type of Talk Story implementation.

Setting

The text covers two continents and spans over one hundred years of events. As such, the text's...