Point of View

The story is presented in first person and is strictly from Sophie's perspective. This means the point of view is extremely limited and the only information the reader has is whatever Sophie has. This limitation is appropriate because Sophie goes through her life working with only that information.

An important example of this limitation is seen in Sophie's relationship with her parents and their relationship with each other. Sophie's parents are divorced and she believes she knows the reason. Her father has a job in Miami and her mother is strictly focused on the bonobo preserve. This means they can't live together. Sophie doesn't initially understand the reason they divorced, saying it seems they could have maintained a long-distance relationship. She comes to realize that her mother's first love is for the bonobos and that Florence will choose the bonobos before family. After the war...