Point of View

The story is told entirely from the point of view of the protagonist, Claude McKay Love. As a result, the reader comes to empathize with his plight and experiences his development with him. Though Claude struggles with his emotions and belief system throughout the novel, his point of view appears fairly reliable, as he seems to have an almost omniscient view of the scene unfolding immediately before him. During the riot scene, for example, he appears to be able to observe the emotions of every individual involved, from the police to the Redbelters to his own family. Claude is also quite self-aware; from his childhood on, he exhibits a mature understanding of his own insecurities and often wonders if he is making the right moral choices. When there is an element of the story that the reader does not receive from Claude’s perspective, another...