Point of View

"The Light Between Oceans" is told in third-person omniscient narrator's point-of-view which means that the unnamed narrator has access to all the character's thoughts and emotions. The narrator primarily follows Tom and Isabel's point of views, but occasionally dips into other characters' thoughts, including Lucy, Hannah, Septimus, Ralph, and Bluey. Because of the narrator's omniscient, the reader never questions the story's reliability, even though the characters lie incessantly to themselves and each other. The narrator's omniscience also creates an interesting effect on the reader. Despite the novel's clear theme of isolation, the reader feels entwined in the lives of all the characters, even the small secondary ones. Finally, the narrator's omniscience allows the reader to judge characters based on the true emotions of their hearts, the emotions they keep hidden from the rest of the world. The reader sees Hannah's broken heart even when she puts...