Point of View

Katherine Paterson tells her novel, “The Great Gilly Hopkins” from the third-person limited omniscient narrative, from the perspective of main character and principal protagonist, Gilly Hopkins. This is done for at least three reasons. The first is that the novel is about Gilly Hopkins’ experiences, and so the novel itself should focus around its main character, which is done. The second is that it allows the novel to read in a more mature fashion because the main character is only eleven. The third is that certain complex emotional elements may have been incredibly difficult for such a character in the first person, and critical parts of the novel may have been unknown to its narrator had the narration been in first person (such as Miss Ellis receiving a call from Nonnie in Virginia), allowing the reader to fill in what would have been gaps in...