Point of View

This novel is told from two different points of view. Ruby’s portions of the novel are told from her first-person point of view. Consider the first sentence of her first chapter: “My grandma Nene always said that early was on time, on time was late, and late was unacceptable” (3). Eleanor’s portions of the novel are told from the point of view of a third-person narrator. Eleanor’s first chapter in the novel starts in this way: “Eleanor bustled across Howard University’s campus, clutching the letter in her right hand” (11).

Both narrators are limited to what they know or what they learn through their experience, in Ruby’s case, or through the character’s experience, in Eleanor’s case. Johnson may have chosen to tell Ruby’s story in the firs-person point of view to make her story more personal to the reader...