Point of View

Leave the World Behind is narrated from third-person omniscient point-of-view, so the reader has access to the thoughts and feelings of all of the main characters—both couples and the teenage children—and even the ancillary characters, such as the contractor Danny. This is critical to the plot, as most of the tension and character development involves this internal information. Initially, the novel's primary conflict is that Amanda (and to a lesser extent Clay) mistrusts the Washingtons when they come to the vacation house and claim to be its owners. Amanda does not believe that a black couple could possibly be wealthy enough to own the house; she realizes that this is racist, but she continues to feel uneasy: “This didn't seem to her like the sort of house where black people lived. But what did she mean by that?” (38). Amanda knows exactly why she...