Point of View

The Belly of Paris is told from the perspective of a disinterested omniscient narrator. Given that there are so many characters presented in the novel, this seems a wise choice. By using an omniscient narrator, Zola enables the reader to follow the narrative action without needing to be concerned with whether or not the narrator's account is accurate. Since gossip and rumor-mongering play such significant roles in the novel, the reader is able to determine the characters' reliability (or lack thereof) from dialogue. The narrator in The Belly of Paris serves as the reader's eyes, nose and ears. This is evident in the long descriptive passages which appear regularly in the narrative. It is interesting to note that the descriptions of the various characters are not nearly as thorough or detailed as the author's descriptions of the various types of food with which Florent and those...