Point of View

The book is written from the first-person point of view of Richie Perry, a seventeen-year-old soldier in the Army sent to Vietnam in 1967. Richie often narrates in a free flow of ideas style, with his words representing his feelings at the moment he feels them. We learn more about the personalities of other characters and their motivations through the way Richie describes them. Though his narration could be viewed as one-sided, Richie often keeps his own opinion out of the story and merely tells the story of what is happening.

The words of the other characters are shown best through the letters they write. Though Richie gives readers the impression his mother does not care much about him, the letter she writes to Peewee tells a very different tale – to the surprise of even Richie. It is clear Lieutenant Gearhart blames himself for Brew’s...