Point of View

The First Time For Everything is told through the first person point of view of Dan Santat, the author and main character in his memoir. This is an effective point of view because the story is of the Europe trip the students take, but more importantly and more poignantly, it is about the psychological journey Santat takes as he moves from being morose, self-involved, closed off, and pessimistic to a more optimistic person who looks forward to the future and wants to have more experiences in life. Had the story been told from the third person perspective, it is likely that the emotions and experiences of other characters would have been included. This would have distracted from the journey Santat is on because much of his difficulty comes from his interactions with these other people.

While the memoir is from the first person perspective, it...