Point of View

Sarah McCoy tells her novel The Baker’s Daughter from the third person point of view of an unnamed narrator. The narrator has a limited-bird’s eye view of events both past and present. The narrator is able to reveal stories, subplots, and pieces of the plot known only to the narrator and the reader –things which the characters themselves may not be aware of as the event is occurring. For example, readers know Elsie saved Tobias, but Jane does not know this until decades later. In some instances, the character is never aware of what has happened. Elsie does not know –and never learns –the depth of Josef’s moral strife).

The third person point of view from a narrator's perspective allows the reader to leap back and forth through time as the author constructs her plot and gives her characters a complex depth...