Point of View

The Nine Cloud Dream is narrated in the third-person by an omniscient narrator who knows what all the characters are thinking and doing, but hews particularly close to Shao-yu throughout the course of the novel. Because the narration follows Shao-yu so closely, he is the main character who the reader becomes invested in. The narrator also provides information about the historical context of the diegetic world and makes regular references to historical people and events. The narrator thus simultaneously provides a very wide-angle view of Chinese history and a close up of the characters who live in it.

The third-person omniscient narration allows the reader to know what all of the characters are thinking, but their thoughts are all more or less pragmatic. None of the character's thoughts display any psychological depth or complexity, and they all come off as archetypes. This, along with all...