Point of View

The novel is written from the third person point of view. Throughout the entirety of the narrative, this third person narrator remains closest to Zorrie's consciousness. Despite the narrator's close proximity to Zorrie's psyche, the narrator infrequently inhabits Zorrie's thoughts and feelings. The moments the narrator does expound upon Zorrie's veritable emotions, therefore, are exceptional and thus act as propelling sources of tension. For example, in Chapter 1, after Zorrie leaves home following the death of her aunt, she stops to see Mr. Thomas, and shares an unexpectedly intimate afternoon with him. Because this experience arrests Zorrie emotionally, the narrator momentarily inhabits Zorrie's interior terrain and reveals her thoughts and feelings to the reader: "Zorrie found it curious that in such quick succession first she and then he had jostled the truth for fear of incurring discomfort or upset. For a moment, as if the years...