Point of View

The point of view in Battleground is third party, omniscient. This allows the author to report on all action, all thoughts by all characters, and to provide an objective view. The reader can trust the reports by the narrator to be actual and unbiased. In this way, the author can promote his themes and beliefs, and get his primary messages across to the reader. Information is supplied through dialogue, description of characters, and observations of minor characters; also through copies of telegrams, top secret messages, letters from loved ones, and historical facts. The narrator can be everywhere at once, providing the reader with a brisk pace of story, going from Pickering's private thoughts to a description of the importance of Midway and Guadalcanal in the war effort.

By blending the setting, the defined characters and their traits, and the action with the fast moving plot, the...