Point of View

This story is told from the first person point of view of 72-year-old Aaliya. The reader knows the story is told from the first person point of view because Aaliya uses the first person pronouns “I” and “we” throughout the novel. This point of view works well for the novel as it tells the story of Aaliya’s life and her greatest grief. Aaliya is the best person to tell this story. Because she is so introverted and has probably told no one the story of Hannah and her death, there is no other character who could tell the story as well. If the story had been told by an omniscient narrator, the reader would not have felt as intimate as they do with Aaliya as she tells her own story through her thoughts.

Aaliya narrates the entire novel as if she were speaking directly...