Point of View

The story is told from the point of view of the three members of the Perle family: Gustav, Emilie, and Erich, giving the reader different insights into the meaning of different incidents based on which member of the family is experiencing them or describing them.

Part 1 is told entirely from the perspective of Gustav, who is a child throughout this part of the novel. As a result of this, the reader is placed in a similar position to Gustav: trying to understand things they do not have enough information or experience to properly understand. For Gustav, the reason he does not understand the world around him is because he is still a child. For the reader, it is because there are clear holes in the information Emilie provides to Gustav which do not give an adequate explanation of what happened to Erich during the war...