Point of View

The story is told from the first-person limited point of view – that is, from the perspective of narrator and protagonist Samuel. This means that the attitudes, identities, and actions of all the other characters are filtered through him – what he believes, what he understands, and how he interprets everything the other characters do and say. This point of view brings the reader closely and tightly into Samuel’s subjective experience, which is particularly effective as the narrative progresses and some of Samuel’s choices become increasingly extreme. There is a sense, as that progression takes place, that Samuel becomes increasingly defensive about those choices, as if he is aware of the reader’s negative judgments.

Meanwhile, the narration also endows the reader with a certain sense of identity. On several occasions throughout the narrative, Samuel actually addresses the reader as if s/he is a...