Point of View

The novel’s story is told entirely from the protagonist’s point of view. The protagonist narrates the story in the first person and the past tense. Notably, although the story is set in the 1970s, the protagonist seems to be narrating the events from a modern perspective. Thus, as a narrator, she seems to be an adult looking back on this previous period of her life. The novel makes use of this perspective by occasionally drawing direct comparisons between the 1970s and modern day, illustrating some ways in which society has changed. For example, in reference to mental illness, the narrator states that her depressed father lived “before these modern times when you can stand up and receive a round of applause for admitting there might be something wrong with your head” (60). Thus, while the novel never states that any of the social problems...