Point of View

Mohsin Hamid’s novel Moth Smoke is written from multiple point of views, though the primary voice used is that of the first-person. A second-person subject appears in several chapters (Chapter Two, Eight, and 14); however, these three chapters also employ third-person narration. The prologue and epilogue are written exclusively from the third-person point of view. “Chapter 4: Opening the Purple Box: An Interview with Professor Julius Superb” is unique in this respect though, because there is no single point-of-view; instead, this chapter is formatted like a play, in that there are no quotation marks, but all that is written is meant to be treated as dialogue.

Moth Smoke also has multiple narrators, though each chapter only has a single narrator. Those characters that narrate from the first-person point of view are all seen and known to the reader. However, the narrator is unknown in several chapters...