Point of View

A Woman’s Battles and Transformations is written from the first person point of view of Eddy. Throughout the novel, Eddy also employs the second person direct address. In passages where he is speaking directly to his mother, he replaces her third person pronouns with second person pronouns, referring to her as “you.” These passages affect a more intimate and personal narrative tone. The first of such passages appears on the third page of the novel’s opening section: “I came home after an afternoon spent hanging out on the steps of the village mairie, and a fight broke out with my youngest brother, right in front of you” (5). The use of the second person direct address is significant in this passage, because Eddy is conveying the intense exposure he feels in his mother's presence. “I was mad at my little brother for having revealed...