Point of View

The three parts of the book are narrated from two different points of view – the first and third parts from Boy’s, the second from Bird’s. All three parts are written in first person past tense narration, which means that in Parts 1 and 3, Boy is telling her story from her perspective, while in Part 2, Bird is telling her story in hers.

The primary effect of an authorial choice to write in first person narration is generally to draw the reader further into the experiences of the narrating character. In the case of this particular story, the reader is connected strongly to the discoveries made by the narrating characters as they make them in the telling of their stories (even though the narrative unfolds in past tense (as opposed to present), the writing is shaped and defined in such a way that the sense of...