Point of View

The story’s narration is written in the past tense and the limited third person. Victor is the primary point-of-view character, but there are a few brief moments where the perspective shifts to Thomas. Through Victor’s perspective, the story repeatedly demonstrates divisions and bifurcations of conscience that may arise in an individual’s perception of the world around them. One of the primary examples of this idea is Victor’s avoidance of Thomas and his shame therein. In this way, the novel demonstrates how a person’s actions and perspective may often be dictated by the collective perspective and pressures of a community, even when those pressures are deleterious to interpersonal relationships.

The novel also examines how the intersections of personal and sociopolitical history may also define a person’s perspective, as the narrative recognizes the inherent connections between personal and political aspects of...