Point of View

Tom Perrotta tells his novel "Election" in the first person, from the perspectives of several different characters who are intrinsic to the plot. Those characters include Mr. M., Tracy Flick, Paul Warren, Tammy Warren, Lisa Flanagan, and Joe Delvecchio (in later chapters). Doing this allows the reader to discover the thoughts, personal motivations, ideas, understanding, and assumptions of each of those characters. Because the characters do not have any major heart-to-heart conversations with one another where they lay out their feelings, telling the novel in multipersonal-first person narration is especially important in order to endear readers to characters. The reader assumes an omniscient role, knowing things about certain characters that other characters do not. This allows the reader the freedom to make a choice about who to like or dislike, rather than a third-person narrator pulling the reader in one direction or another.

Setting

The setting...