Point of View

Because Arkham Asylum is a graphic novel, its point of view is a third person camera, much like a movie, watching the action unfold. The camera is guided by the writer and artist, pointing out to the reader details such as the moon Tarot card that falls to the ground when Two-Face knocks down the house of cards and the joker card on the floor of Harriet Arkham's room, prescient of the Joker who will later inhabit the house.

During the flashbacks to Arkham's life, the story is told from Arkham's journal, so it takes on Arkham's first person narrative point of view. Arkham is descending into madness, so his point of view is unreliable. He has repressed his own memory of killing his mother, and he has experienced disconnects from reality and hallucinations. Arkham's journal is a journal of impressions, things that originate inside Arkham's...