Point of View

Louise Erdrich tells her novel “The Plague of Doves” in the first-person omniscient reflective narrative mode, from the points of view of several different characters. These include Evelina, Judge Coutts, Marn Wolde, and Cordelia Lochren. The novel is ultimately revealed to be a collection of firsthand accounts of the history of the town of Pluto, and families who live there by way of the local historical society newsletter. Evelina, Coutts, Marn, and Cordelia write in the first person as they recall their own experiences as well as those of their families. Their writing assumes both present and past-tense form that alternates and sometimes mixes.

The narrative is both reflective and omniscient, as the events being written about are being described years later, and are nearly all known. The use of past tense language, as well as the thoughts, considerations, and analysis of those events by...