Point of View

Fuller’s novel oscillates between two different narratives, both narrated in the first person by Peggy. The first is Peggy’s present moment as a 17-year-old, safely returned from the wilderness to civilization. In these sections, conflict arises from Peggy attempting to acclimate herself back to her life in Ute’s house with her new brother, Oskar. Throughout the novel, Peggy’s adjustment period is troubled, and even in the later sections of the novel, Peggy looks around her bedroom in Ute’s house and thinks it “belonged to a different person… someone whose bedroom I had temporarily taken over until I could return to the forest” (231).

In addition to telling the story of Peggy’s readjustment to civilized life, the sections narrated by present day Peggy are shrouded in a mystery which Peggy slowly unravels throughout the novel. After observing Ute and talking with...