Point of View

The novel features many points of view, from the first-person narrative sections of a variety of narrators to the third-person omniscient point of view of typical fiction narration. Chapter 50 even features a brief segment of second-person narration directed at the "you" of the reader. Many of the novel's extensive footnotes also have a second-person element. The primary point of view of the novel probably is the first-person and limited perspective of the protagonist David Foster Wallace. Most, but not all, of the first-person segments of the novel are directly attributed to Wallace or can be assumed to be attributed to Wallace. Some segments are clearly not narrated by Wallace but nevertheless are presented in the first-person point of view. Many of the shorter chapters are presented in the third-person point of view by unnamed and effaced narrators: the novel does not suggest or demonstrate any narrative...