Perspective

The perspective of A Year in the Maine Woods is almost entirely first-person. The book is written like a diary, a first-hand account of the things he experiences while living his life in the isolated Maine woods. However, towards the beginning he breaks this a little, instead doing a linear history of the Adams family, the first settlers of his property and the area around it. He tells who settled where, how many children they had, and the year in which the property changed hands. In this way, the perspective is almost that of the land, a passive observer who has seen many people come and go. Other than that, the perspective is only that of the author who writes what he saw, what he did, and the conversations he had along the way. Sometimes the author simply jots down notes, like a stream of consciousness. It does...