Point of View

The novel is written from the perspective of Jane McKeene, a teenage girl who is living in the late 1800s in America. Jane's limited perspective means the reader knows only what she knows, and only learns those details as Jane learns them. The major examples of this are the fate of Jane's mother and her home, Rose Hill, a plantation in the south. Jane was born and raised at Rose Hill but she left when she was a child because of the Negro and Native Reeducation Act that forced children into schools meant to train them to fight shamblers. That means that Jane is not physically present at Rose Hill during the years after her departure and that she knows nothing about the events there until she receives letters from her mother. Jane holds onto the idea of returning to Rose Hill because she considers...