Point of View

The three narrators of the novel are Seth, Jim, and Shaw. The novel is always narrated in the first-person, regardless of which character is narrating at any given time. Whenever Seth narrates, he uses the past tense, which possibly implies that he is narrating his entire story in a retrospective manner from the confines of his jail cell. Jim narrates his story in the present tense, giving his storyline a feeling of immediacy despite the fact that it took place decades before Seth’s storyline. Shaw narrates his storyline in the past tense, as if reflecting upon the past wrongs he suffered and their role in his consuming focus of revenge on the Wallace family. These three storylines and perspectives ultimately serve to create a complete picture of the saga and legacy of Charlie Shaw’s tragedy, as well as its apparently spiritual and cosmic...