Point of View

Rules for Visiting is written from the main character May Attaway’s first person point of view. Because the novel is most interested in tracing May’s journeys towards reconnection with friends, emotional transformation, and reconciliation with her past, the first person perspective is in service of the narrative’s central themes. Indeed, May’s first person vantage point grants the reader access to her psyche. At the start of the novel, while trying to explain why she named her suitcase Grendel, “after the first monster in English literature,” May says “I may not eat anyone, but transformations are not always violent or even physical” (3). This moment indicates that May is on a journey towards changing, and that her change will largely be emotional and psychological. Although she has many changes yet to undergo, at the start of the novel, she is letting the reader...