Point of View

The Ardent Swarm is written from the third person point of view. The third person narration lends the novel an expansiveness an alternate perspective would not allow. Though Sidi is arguably the main character, the novel also encompasses the intimate experiences of other characters including Douda, Toumi, Baya, Jannet, and Tahar. If the author had written the novel from Sidi's first person point of view, he would not have been able to access the experiences of Sidi's friends and family. Sidi's physical separation from the rest of Nawa, as well as his general desire to "reduce his interactions with other humans to the bare minimum" precludes his knowledge of the village happenings (113). For example, while the rest of Nawa is engaged in the election, Sidi is wandering in the forests and mountains in search of wild bees. Though Nawa has no knowledge of what is...