Point of View

Count the Ways is told from the point of view of a third-person narrator. Note: “In the spring of the year Eleanor turned twenty, she bought a secondhand Toyota Corolla and set out on the road to buy a house” (24). The narrator refers to the main character as Eleanor and calls her by the pronoun “she” (24) indicating that the narrator is a person other than Eleanor. The narrator focuses on Eleanor through the course of the novel, recording Eleanor’s thoughts, actions, and emotions. The narrator is not involved in the novel in any way. He is also not biased in any way. He does not give his opinion of what Eleanor is doing or suggest what he thinks she needs to do.

This form of narration is ideal because the central theme of the novel focuses on the transformation in Eleanor as she gains...