Point of View

The novel is written from the third person point of view. For the majority of the narrative, this third person narrator is limited to the main character Sam’s perspective. This means that the narrator has a close psychic relationship with Sam. She remains closest to Sam’s consciousness. Because she has access to Sam’s interior world, she is able to describe Sam’s most private thoughts and vulnerable feelings. The third person narration is thus dictated by Sam’s character and her emotional evolution throughout the novel.

The reader might refer to a pivotal passage from Part III, “Trouble,” Chapter 40, in order to better understand the relationship between the narrator and the protagonist. After discovering that her father has died, Sam drives out to the beach and sits in her car. The narrator inhabits Sam’s consciousness in this scene, describing the world...