Point of View

The novel is told from the first person point of view of Kiku Hughes. Kiku is an important character because she represents the author, Kiku Hughes, herself as the author wrote a fictionalized account of the experience of internees during World War II. Kiku’s grandmother, Ernestina Teranishi is not a main character in the novel, but Kiku was sent back in time to live the internment experience near her grandmother and great grandparents. This allows her to have her own experience while also viewing that of her grandmother first hand. The reader never learns what Ernestina and her parents have to say because they speak to each other in Japanese, and Kiku does not speak the language. This demonstrates the degree to which language is necessary for passing on memory. Had the story been told in the third person, the author would have understood...