Point of View

Conjure Women mostly addresses events from Rue’s perspective, through the use of a limited third-person narrator. Rue does not tell her story, but her point of view feeds into the narrative voice. This means that we engage with her thoughts and feelings closely, without having a relationship with her. Whereas a first-person narrator can appeal to or mislead readers, the narrator in this case is essentially neutral and trustworthy: Rue may be out to deceive and manipulate the novel’s other characters, but we have no reason to question what we are told.

Nonetheless, there are plenty of riddles to solve. The narrative mode encourages interpretative scrutiny, since we can evaluate character based on unformulated inner thoughts, as well as directly expressed sentiments. For instance, when the stranger in the woods presumes to tell Rue that she should be taking better care of Bean...