Point of View

Berest’s novel, The Postcard, is predominantly written from a first-person point of view, through the lens of Anne Berest. Throughout the text, the author utilizes this perspective in order to explore the protagonist’s intimate struggle with identity. Toward the outset of the narrative, Anne’s pregnancy is the impetus for her desire to learn about her family’s past. When she is on bedrest, “suspended in a state of anticipation, [her] thoughts turn to [her] mother, [her] grandmother, and the whole line of women who had given birth before [her]” (14). Anne believes that she must understand her ancestors in order to fully engage with her present experience. Later, when her daughter is the recipient of hate speech on the playground, Anne’s internal thoughts turn to the past and she is consumed with the urge to learn about her grandmother, Myriam. The narrator...