Point of View

The author writes The Emissary in a third person point of view, which assumes the perspectives of Yoshiro, Mumei, Marika, and Yonatani. In the initial pages of the novel, the narrative seems most interested in Yoshiro's perspective, living almost entirely behind his experience and view of the world. The story takes shape through his frequent psychic shifts between the present and the past. The author, however, does not retain this structural patterning. The narrative later moves behind Mumei's perspective, even using the first person "I" in portraying Mumei's perception of the world. As Mumei's thoughts move to his great-grandfather, the narrator again shifts back to Yoshiro. Later when Marika enters the narrative, the narrator also gives her voice a role on the page. One of the perhaps most unexpected turns in point of view, however, comes when the narrator moves into Mumei's teacher Yonatan's perspective...