Point of View

Let Us Descend is written from the first person point of view of the protagonist Annis. This means that Annis’s way of seeing the world dictates the narrative’s central stakes, tensions, and thematic explorations. Because Annis is enslaved, she often relies upon the poetic and storied, the magical and mystical elements of her world for survival. Annis learns from a young age that stories, be they real or imagined, offer her a gateway out of her suffering. For example, in Chapter 1, “Mama’s Bladed Hands,” she explains that “Mama has always been a woman who hides a tender heart: a woman who tells me stories in a leaf-rustling whisper . . . a woman who gives me a gift when she unsheathes herself in teaching me to fight once a month” (4). These facets of her life and her relationship with her mother dictate Annis’s narrative...