Point of View

The story is presented in from an omniscient perspective, an interesting choice because the story is reportedly being told by a single person. This is a discrepancy that may bother some readers. Miss Marguerite is reportedly telling the story to a young girl, a member of the WPA who is seeking to document the stories of former slaves as part of her project. However, Marguerite's story offers many details that she could not have known. When Marguerite - then known as Maggie - had been sold away from Stratford Plantation, she should not have been able to relate the stories of Jesse's escape nor the way Rufus later died. This is especially true considering that Marguerite says she didn't answer Jesse's ad in search of her. She offers up equally impossible details of Duncan's life though she says she encountered him only one time while she...