Point of View

The narrative is told in the third-person, omniscient viewpoint by an unnamed and entirely effaced narrator. The narrator is completely reliable and exposes interior thoughts and motivations of many characters. The narrative focuses most closely on Flory, the protagonist, but also often focuses on U Po Kyin, the antagonist. Of the major characters, the narrator offers the least omniscient insight into the mind of Elizabeth. There is a largish cast of minor characters and many of them—Ellis, Maxwell, Winfield—are fairly interchangeable. These characters often represent, or typify, an entire class of individuals and are best interpreted as such. That is, Ellis' virulent racism is best seen as endemic to the entire colonial lifestyle rather than as an eccentricity of the single character.

The third-person point of view is traditional and in this case highly appropriate to the type of text developed. It...