Point of View

This novel is told from the first, second, and third person points of view. Hoa serves as narrator for the majority of the novel. The novel is the story that Hoa tells to Essun’s remains. By telling the story, Hoa hope to instill in the remains attributes of Essun. Then, when the remains are revived, they will retain as much of Essun's essence as possible. Hoa uses the first person point of view at times to speak directly to Essun in his own voice. For instance, in Chapter 7 when Essun first sees Jija’s remains, Hoa adds an aside indicating to her that: “I wish I were still flesh, for you. I wish that I were still a tuner, so that I could speak to you through temperatures and pressures and reverberations of the earth” (166). The first person point of view is also used...