Point of View

The two main settings—Hương’s adolescence from 1972–1980, and Diệu Lan’s family from 1930–1955—are told from the first-person perspectives of Hương and Dieu Lan. Hương tells the story of her adolescence using the past tense, suggesting that she is telling the story of her adolescence from an older age. However, Hương’s retelling of her adolescence tracks her thoughts as if they are current, fully plunging into her perspective as a young girl. She often reveals her intimate thought processes as if they were currently happening; for instance, she wonders in if “perhaps Auntie Hạnh had gone to Sài Gòn to look for my father” (115). Instead of phrasing these as past thought by saying “I wondered if Auntie Hạnh had gone…” Hương represents her thoughts as if they are occurring to her presently. This...