Point of View

The book is written in third person point of view with the author, James Clavell, functioning as the narrator. He fills in the pieces of information in terms of history and scenery setting to describe the scenes for the reader. There is plenty of dialogue in the book in which the characters express their own opinions, with the author functioning to fill in any gaps in time or setting.

The third person point of view is a better choice than the first person point of view for this novel. If the book were written in the first person point of view, the knowledge of the reader would be confined to situations and events that took place in front of the storyteller and would miss out on events that occurred away from the storyteller. This situation is avoided with the use of the third person. The reader...