Point of View

The narrative is told in third person point of view and it follows different characters nearly every chapter. In the prologue, the story follows the perspective of William H. Ashley. Later, it goes on to follow Captain Henry and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and then Hugh Glass by himself. This continues throughout the novel. It uses the present tense whether it is talking about an event that happened in the past or not. By using present tense throughout the entire book, it allows the story to have a tone of immediacy. It allows the reader to witness and understand the changes as they are taking place.

Language and Meaning

The genre of The Revenant is historical fiction, so the reader encounters many terms and language styles that were relevant during the time of the American West. Although many of the people and places in...