Point of View

The Unsinkable Greta James is written from a third person limited point of view. This means that the third person narrator has sole access to the consciousness of the main character, Greta James. This third person limited point of view succeeds in enacting Greta’s distinct state of mind, particularly in the wake of her mother’s recent and sudden death and her subsequent career struggles. If the novel were written from Greta’s first person point of view, Greta would appear markedly more confident and in control of her life. In Chapter 5, the narrator says that “when her mom was still alive . . . Greta was still full of confidence” (31). However, in the months following her mother’s death, Greta feels entirely unmoored. She is not only mourning Helen, but experiencing a profound crisis of identity, one particularly inspired by her newly faltering musical endeavors.

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