Perspective

The book is written as a first-person narrative, and Chatwin's perspective is that of a citizen of the world and a student of cultures. He is particularly fascinated with primitive and nomadic cultures and wishes to observe them at their most pure, as demonstrated by the time he wants to see a hunter interacting gracefully with an animal using only his spear and his own feet. His narrative honesty, however, compels him to tell the reader both his previous knowledge and preconceptions about a culture, as well as his actual experiences of them when he encountered them, however changed they might have been by the evolutions of history. He continuously draws on the things he has learned from other cultures as he learns about the Aboriginal culture, so that his perspectives inform his narrative, and the reader benefits from all of his other study. At the end of...