Point of View

One of the most striking features of Petals of Blood is its narrative style that uses multiple points of view to weave together the stories of the protagonists and those around them. In the opening pages of the novel, events are seen through the eyes of each of the four protagonists. As the novel progresses, an omniscient, third-person voice enters and recounts parts of story. This narrator sometimes comments upon and interprets the events, but on occasion offers a more detached perspective. There is also a second narrative voice, which seems to be a collective one of the villagers of Ilmorog. In the early chapters of the novel, as Munira remembers his arrival in Ilmorog, his voice almost merges with that of the omniscient narrator. Indeed as each other character tells his or her story—whether old Nyakinyua or the lawyer, Karega or Wanja—the reader...