Point of View

There are actually two points of view in this comparative narrative. It is a narrative in that it tells the readers facts about the subject. How it differs is that it is partly historical and partly interviews.

The first point of view is historical and focuses on the actions, beliefs, and experiments of Darwin and his contemporaries in the field of evolution. It explains how he started research on natural selection with the ending of a five-year journey along the coast of South America. It gives the reader insight into how Darwin reached his conclusions that ended up in his books, "Origin of Species" and "Descent of Man."

The other point of view is the interviews and explanations of data that Peter and Rosemary Grant gathered during their twenty-year vigil watching the finches of Galapagos Islands. The Grants talk to the author about how they got...