Point of View

The narrative is related in the third person in the past tense focusing on Ben’s perspective. Although the narrative remains limited in its perspective in the sense that the narrator only reveals the inner thoughts and feelings of one character (Ben), the novel itself is an exercise in an ever-expanding sense of perspective. Ben’s character arc shows his progress from someone with a limited perspective on the world and his place in it, who gradually awakens to a new kind of perspective that allows for different views and mindsets that Ben had not previously considered. So although the reader experiences events entirely from Ben’s perspective, that perspective constantly grows, changes, and widens as the story continues.

At the beginning of the novel, the reader’s understanding of Ben’s situation in life is limited by Ben’s own understanding of his life...