Point of View

This novel is told from the third person plural point of view. The narrators for the first seven chapters of the novel are the Japanese women who come to America as picture brides. The narrators for the final chapter of the novel are the Americans who lived in the town in which J-town was located. Since the story is told from the view point of groups of characters, there is mostly exposition with very little dialogue. The dialogue that does exist is presented most in snippets encapsulated in the paragraphs of exposition. These quotes are not credited to any character in particular but seem to serve to back up a thought included in the exposition. The quotes can be differentiated because they are in italics and are often in the present tense, while the remainder of the exposition is written in the past tense.

Language and Meaning