Point of View

Patrick Skene Catling tells his novel "The Chocolate Touch" from the point of view of the third-person limited-omniscient perspective, in which a narrator, not personally involved in the story somehow, tells the story. The third-person perspective allows the writer to comment on John and his actions from time to time. For example, when John decides to go left instead of right to take a different route to visit Susan in Chapter 2, the narrator comments that John did not stop to consider that one cannot go east by going west unless one crosses the entire globe.

The third-person narrative mode also allows insights into the thoughts and actions of other characters that might not be apparent to other characters. For example, Mr. Midas first approaches John's story with a dose of skepticism not readily obvious to John. Likewise, the limited-omniscient perspective lends a sense of mystery...