Point of View

The story is written in the past tense and in the first person. Chappie is the narrator and the story takes the form of a confessional, where an older, wiser Chappie relates the improbable adventures of his youth. He jumps outside the narrative only a few times. At the beginning, he gives the reader the caveat that they will not believe his story, because it is the kind of tale that is far from the norm. In one other instance, toward the end of the story, just before his final confrontation with his real father and with Jason, I-man's murderer, Chappie tells the reader that, if allowed to choose again, he would still choose to go back to the Starport, even knowing what he now does about the events to come.

There is only one instance of Chappie being an unreliable narrator. During the first half...