Point of View

Despite the fact that the novel’s three storylines take place in distinct chronological periods, the narration is consistently written in the present tense. Very occasionally, the novel will use the past tense when characters are internally recalling past events; however, the predominant mode is the present tense, which gives a sense of consistent immediacy to the characters’ perspective in each storyline. Additionally, each storyline is written in the third person, but the narration generally remains limited to one character’s perspective. In the 1560s storyline, the narrative perspective is consistently limited to the character of Hiram, as that storyline focuses on Hiram’s personal changes in the face of repeated adversity.

The 1560s storyline generally focuses on Jacques Le Moyne’s perspective. Le Moyne is generally depicted as the most moral person in the expedition. He is technically an artist rather than a colonizer...