Point of View and Narration

"Children of the Sea" is narrated in the first person by two distinct voices. The first belongs to a young man who is fleeing Haiti on a leaky boat. The second voice is that of the man's lover, a young woman who remains in Haiti with her family. The story is written in the form of letters from each of the characters to the other, a style known as "epistolary," which is derived from the ancient Greek word meaning "message" or "letter." To underscore the danger of their respective situations, neither of the characters refers to each other by name. To do so would jeopardize their lives even more. Through their letters, which cannot be mailed, the reader learns of the characters' deepest thoughts, the ones they are afraid to voice.

The characters' personalities are revealed by how they write and what they choose...