Point of View

The majority of the novel is written in first person from the limited perspectives of Sunny and Raymond. These perspectives change as the story changes, and sometimes shows a specific event from the perspective of one of these characters, then from the other. The first example of this is seen when Sunny and Gillette sneak into the pool after dark. Sunny literally bumps into Raymond, though she does not yet know who he is. She does not even realize he is black until Gillette tells her, then she is horrified that she touched the boy. Sunny's attitude is that she does not understand why he would be there because the pool is segregated by race and blacks are not allowed in the pool at all. A few chapters later, the reader sees the situation from Raymond's perspective. There is not a pool for blacks and...