Point of View

The narrative is written from the first person, past tense point of view - specifically, from the perspective of its twelve year old narrator and protagonist, Cambodian refugee Dara. There is a sense of immediacy and intimacy about the narration, the surges of feeling it portrays coming across very clearly as appropriate for a person of her age. The circumstances of Dara's life and experiences being what they are (i.e., caught up in the middle of a war that she doesn't understand, much less believe in), the sense of connection with her that this narrative perspective allows works well to support and/or illustrate the novel's thematic concern with the suffering caused by war. In other words, the novel's point of view draws the reader effectively into the experience of struggling to survive in unpredictable, dangerous, profoundly frightening circumstances. There are also times when the...