Perspective

Because the book is nonfiction, the narrative is delivered in the third person point of view. This means that the author does not participate in any way in the dialogue or action and is essentially delivering facts in a compelling way as opposed to inventing characters with personalities and emotions. The important people in this book are all real historical figures, so the author cannot create their motives or actions; these have already been defined by the people themselves as they lived. The author draws his information from historical documents, papers, and letters, and interjects the information gleaned to help give depth to Washington and the other important people. In many cases the author actually uses quotes from these documents in order to add some authenticity to what could sometimes be considered speculation about an event or a person's reaction to an event. These are the only instances...