Point of View

In The Girls at 17 Swann Street, Zgheib oscillates between a first-person point of view and a third person limited point of view. The author chooses to shift the lens of the novel as she explores the protagonist’s past and present life in order to bolster her thematic exploration of identity. In the portions of the text told through Anna’s first-person lens, she is living at a residential eating disorder facility. Her thoughts are dictated by anorexia, and she struggles to find a reason to live. When she is in sessions with her therapist, Anna does not know how to connect with her identity, because the eating disorder voice has supplanted her personal desires, beliefs, and relationships. Conversely, the portions of the novel that employ a third-person limited point of view illustrate Anna’s life before her eating disorder, when she feels connected to...