Point of View

The novel is written in first person from the limited perspective of a teenage boy named Russell Culver. Russell is 15 years old. He has an older sister named Tansy and a younger brother named Lloyd. Russell and his family live in Rural Indiana during the early 1900s. The limited perspective means the reader knows only what Russell knows. Russell is aware that his perspective is sometimes limited, but he is typically unable to move outside that perspective. For example, Russell believes Tansy is a very plain, young woman with nothing that might attract a suitor. When he is forced to recognize that some might see her differently, he accepts that his view of Tansy could be affected by the fact that Tansy is his sister.

Russell has his own way of seeing the world, and some aspects of this may seem strange to young, modern-day...