Point of View

Make Your Home Among Strangers is written from the first person perspective of the main protagonist, Lizet Ramirez. As the novel is focused on Lizet's experiences in her first year of college, the use of the first person point of view gives the reader insight into her thoughts and feelings as she makes the transition into living away from home. This is an effective means of conveying Lizet's subjective experience, allowing the reader to trace her journey and have a full understanding of her emotional connection to events, rather than the objective, but more distant experience that a third person approach would provide.

Language and Meaning

The choice of language conveys a lot of subtle messages throughout this novel. Although predominantly written in English, there are parts of the dialogue that are presented only in Spanish, and there is little warning when these will occur...