Point of View

The narrative shares the perspectives of multiple characters, including Janie, Sopham, James, and Hiroji. However, the only character whose perspective is shared in the first person is Janie. Janie narrates her adult life in the present tense, and she narrates the past events of her life in the past tense. The perspectives of Sopham, James, and Hiroji are from the third person. Regarding Sopham’s perspective, it is clear that his experiences are being relayed to the reader by Janie. However,when the novel conveys James and Hiroji’s respective experiences in Cambodia, it is unclear if the experiences are being relayed by Janie or an abstract narrator. The use of the present tense in James and Hiroji’s sections seems to indicate the use of an abstract narrator. Janie may still have possibly become privy to the specifics of Hiroji and James’ experiences, but...