Perspective

The story is told in the first person by Sheldon Vanauken about his own life. He tells the story as a man both humbled and reborn by the story's most painful aspects, and striving to remain true to a love story that was the most powerful experience of his life. His perspective on Christianity, the next, although not less, most powerful thing to happen in his life, is the most dramatically changing part of his point of view. In the beginning of the story, he is above the need for faith, satisfied and happy in his beauty-worshiping paganism. Over the course of the story, the reader is allowed to see the reasons why he begins to wonder whether a reexamination might be worth making and why he puts his faith in God. Vanauken is so thorough in his re-entering the thoughts he had while he was moving through...