Point of View

The point of view of Life and Fate is that of a third person, semi-omniscient narrator. The narrator's discourse often aligns with the thoughts and feelings of the character in focus. Much of the narrative is driven by these accounts of characters' thoughts and feelings as they respond to the people around them and the events taking place. Anecdotes of events that take place at an unspecified time in relation to the present moment also often figure significantly in the discourse of the novel. The narrator's omniscience allows for past events to be recalled at any moment in the narrative, whenever they are relevant to a character's present emotional and psychological state.

The narrator proves to be only semi-omniscient, as there is information relevant to the plot that remains undisclosed, such as the fate of Seryhoza, or Madyarov, or who denounced Krymov. Such questions remain...