Point of View

The point of view for this novel is third person omniscient. This point of view provides the reader with understanding of all parts of the book without leaving them confused. It is esecially helpful in a novel, such as this, where the story line is constantly changing. It allows you to know what each character is not only saying, but thinking and feeling. If not for the third person point of view it would be much more difficult to explain everything that Banning is thinking when he's considering suicide. It allows you to have background on Banning's wife he left in Shanghai, and how heartbroken he was over leaving her. The reader understands that if he couldn't continue to be a Marine then he had left his wife in Shanghai for nothing. It allows him to explain the detail of respect he has for the Captain...