Point of View

Patrick Carman tells his novel “Pulse” in the third-person omniscient narrative, with most of the narrative focused around Faith. This is done for primarily two reasons, both integral to the plot. The first is that the novel deals with the experiences of Faith as she learns her abilities to pulse, and discovers her abilities to second pulse, all the while dealing with the death of her parents, her best friend, and the discovery of love with Dylan, so the narrative should be focused around Faith. The second reason is that the back story to the novel is immense, and events occurring at the same time as Faith’s story unfolds, also need to be told. The first-person narrative in limited omniscient could not handle allowing the reader to follow parallel plots, but the third-person omniscient narrative does just that.

Language and Meaning

Patrick Carman tells...