Point of View

The Cape Ann is the first-person narrative of six-year-old Lark Ann Browning Erhardt, who is growing up in a small town called Harvester, Minnesota in the 1930s and 1940s. Through Lark's young voice, the reader hears, sees and feels the same experiences as the narrator, as she makes sense of a nonsensical world. The author does not divulge every thought on every situation, however.

For instance, when Lark observes Uncle Stanley and the German Woman, Mrs. Kraus, performing sexual activities in the house next door, Lark's young mind cannot possibly know what is truly happening. She thinks, instead, that the man is dead, when they finish. Another example of this is found when Aunt Betty hemorrhages after terminating the pregnancy. The author does not come out and state the obvious because the true facts would not be obvious to young Lark. Lark only knows that she...