Point of View

Gary Paulsen tells his novel Tracker in the third-person narrative mode. The narrator, never named, intimately relates the details of John’s experiences between Grandpa’s diagnosis, the hunting trip, and John's journey into manhood. Just as John is something of an observer to the doe that he pursues, so are the narrator and the reader as observers of John’s journey. This allows readers to understand John and his situation. It also ensures readers do not get too close to the subject, just as John does not get too close to the doe. While John may feel his connection to the doe and empathize with the doe, John is not the doe. While the reader may feel connected to John and empathize with John, the reader is not John. John is an observer of the doe’s life; the readers are observers of John...