Point of View

The novel is primarily told from the perspective of a third-person limited narrator. The narrator solely has access to the thoughts and feelings of Stella, the novel’s central protagonist. This limited perspective emphasizes that the novel is intended to focus on a specific period of time in one person’s life. While other characters are described in detail, it is through Stella’s lens.

The novel does occasionally switch to Stella’s first person perspective, but only through her writing. In her essays, the reader not only glimpses her writing ability, but often gains a new understanding about her thoughts and feelings relating to specific events. While the narrator can describe how Stella is feeling, Stella’s own descriptions are more potent.

Language and Meaning

Though the novel uses a third-person narrator to focus on a central main character, it’s arguable that the...