Point of View

The novel is narrated in the third person and follows only Jim’s story. The narrator tells Jim’s story – even the horrific parts of it – in an emotionless, almost indifferent tone. When the narrator describes the most atrocious events with the same flat emotion as he does the more mundane, he demonstrates the shift in perspective prisoners had to undergo to survive the camps. Because the brutalities became a part of everyday life for the prisoners, the narrator portrays them that way.

While the characters may be quick to judge Jim, the narrator withholds all judgment until the very last sentence of the book when he describes Shanghai as a “terrible city.” Because the narrator refuses to appoint “bad guys” and “good guys,” he offers an honest point of view of the war that is as complex and difficult to understand as the war...