Point of View

'A Place at the Table' is told primarily from the first person perspective of either Alice, Bobby, or Amelia. Alice's point of view starts off the book in the Prologue, but for the bulk of the book the point of view is Bobby's. The last four or five chapters feature the viewpoint of Amelia as she deals with her own identity and heritage. This allows the author to focus on different themes such as Prejudice, Family, and Love, through the eyes of three different protagonists enduring three different experiences. Also, these characters are not randomly chosen. In the latter part of the book it is revealed that they are all connected. Finding out how they are all related adds an air of mystery to the novel and keeps pushing the reader forward to discover how they relate to each other.

Language and Meaning

The language...