Point of View

The novel is written from the third person point of view. In the opening two pages of the novel, which appear outside any titled section or chapter, employ a third person omniscient perspective. “It was difficult to imagine a time before them,” the narrator begins at the narrative’s start, “a world in which they hadn’t come. But when they first appeared, in March, nobody had any idea what to do with them, these strange little boxes that came with the spring” (1). In this passage, the reader can witness the omniscient, and thus all-seeing narrative entity’s voice. The narrator is introducing the reader to the narrative world in these opening pages, while simultaneously speaking for the collective. Several similar sections appear throughout the novel, and grant the reader perspective on the ways in which the boxes have changed the scope of the narrative...