Point of View

The point of view is interesting because it is told from a split point of view. Some of the chapters are told from the first person point of view of Sophia. In these chapters — which include chapters 1, 3, 9, 15, 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 31, 33, 36, 39, 52, 56, 58 and 60 — Sophia refers to herself as “I,” an indication of a first person narration. Although she narrates these chapters in the present tense, Sophia is obviously relating them after they have happened because she refers to things that will happen in the future, like her death and the eventual discovery of her sins.

The remaining chapters in the novel are told by an omniscient narrator from the focus of one of the main characters. The reader can tell that these sections are not being narrated by Sophia because she, like the other characters in these sections, is referred to by the third person pronoun of “she.” The characters...