Third-person Omniscient Point of View

The Little Friend is told from a third-person omniscient point of view, which means that the narrator has knowledge of everything going on in the story, including the characters' thoughts. This way, the characters' memories, thoughts, and feelings can be directly revealed to the reader. The narrator also knows about things outside the direct action, such as Hely's feelings about Harriet or that Harriet will never see Ida again. The third-person narrator is not a character in the story.

Back-story

Throughout the primary stories in The Little Friend, Tartt scatters a great deal of back-story in the form of narrative digressions. This back-story provides information on the background of the characters and their lives, adding a deeper understanding of their experiences and motivations. Much of the back-story in the novel relates to the past and how current situations came to be. For example, at...