Point of View

This story is told from the third person point of view of an omniscient narrator with an emphasis on Rache. It is known that the character of Rache writes the story, years after her great-grandmother dies. Even with her first hand knowledge, however, the story is not written in the first person point of view. It is instead a third person narrator who tells both the frame story and Nana Sashie’s story. The emphasis of the narration focuses on Rache as her thoughts and emotions are described through the novel while only the actions of the other characters are narrated.

As the novel spans nearly one hundred years, it seems it would make sense for some of it to be in present tense while some is written in past tense, but the author chooses to write in the past tense only. The changes between...