Point of View

The novel is written in the third person and the past tense. The narrative focuses on various perspectives throughout the novel. At any given time, the narration centers on the perspective of a specific character or a larger societal perspective. Euclide and Cécile are the main point-of-view characters, but the narrative sometimes focuses on the perspectives of other characters, such as the Count. These shifts in perspective allow the novel to explore both the individual and collective experiences of colonial life, thereby illustrating both the broad and specific elements of the story’s setting.

Through these shifts in perspective, the novel illustrates life in society—especially in relatively insular societies such as colonies—as a heteroglossic existence in which the collective nature of the community is defined by the coalescence of many perspectives. In other words, an individual’s experience can represent specific important...