Point of View

The Midnight Library is told from a third-person limited point of view. The narrator knows all the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist, Nora, but not of any of the other characters. Consequently, the reader is able to focus all their attention on Nora and her sorrows. But there are also limitations to this style of narration. Since the reader is privy to only Nora’s sensations, they must constantly question and interpret scenes. This is partly due to the fact that Nora suffers from depression and is prone to distort the meanings of others in order to for them to align with her negative worldview. For instance, the reader’s perception of Joe is completely centered around Nora’s poor opinion of him. It is only at the end of the novel, when Nora recovers from her depression, that the reader realizes that Joe...