Point of View

Jandy Nelson tells her novel “I’ll Give You the Sun” in the first-person reflective omniscient narrative from the point of view of 13-year-old Noah, and 16-year-old Jude, in a back-and-forth time-hopping fashion, with Jude’s narration being in the present, and Noah’s being two to three years in the past. The reflective aspect of the narrative involves Jude looking back at the past to reveal to the reader how things came to be as they are, and how things as they are unfold in the present. Noah’s narrated sections lead up to how things are, and fill in many of the details that Jude is either reluctant to provide, or withholds for the time being from the reader. This adds a sense of mystery and curiosity to the novel, and allows the reader to know only as much as the twins are...