Point of View

Wheat That Springeth Green is a limited omniscient narrative. The novel manipulates the distance between Joe and the reader. The novel is told from a single character’s perspective, but not in first person (“I”). Rather Powers uses third person (he or more often Joe). But the point of view is clearly Joe’s. This is Joe Hackett’s story. The events are filtered through his perceptions, his limitations, his assumptions, his cutting sense of irony, his sense of judgment. First person narratives create sympathy for the central character. First person narratives create intimacy and brings the narrator, whether good or evil, closer to the reader. By using limited omniscience, however, Powers uses Joe, his experiences, his spiritual growth as a lesson. Joe is kept at a distance, near enough to be a sympathetic figure but distant enough to be an abject lesson. Thus, the...