Point of View

Andrew Krivak tells his novel The Signal Flame from a third-person regional-omniscient point of view. The narrator, never identified, is nevertheless very intimate with the goings-on of Bo, Hannah, and Ruth. The narration gives an account of their separate, yet intertwined, stories. The stories tell everything going on with the characters as needed to advance the plot. Thus, the characters are fully explored and given great depth and dimension. Readers can relate and be sympathetic as they recognize their own loss, love, and family in the characters, plot, and setting. The novel itself is dependent upon characters, not plot. The lives of the characters give the story life.

The narrator’s knowledge of events is limited just to the town of Dardan, as the narrator does not know whether or not Sam is dead, missing, or imprisoned. This adds a sense of desperation and anxiety...