Point of View

Although the narration of the novel is written in the third person, the narration is limited specifically to Zuckerman’s thoughts and experiences. The narration never conveys information that Zuckerman himself does not possess. All interactions are described through Zuckerman’s perspective, and the third-person narration functions as a way of placing one degree of separation between Zuckerman and the reader. First-person narration would allow Zuckerman to communicate directly with the reader in an unfiltered manner, but the third-person mode acts as a way of moderating Zuckerman’s point of view and curating Zuckerman’s thoughts so that they are always relevant in some way to the narrative of the novel.

Although the novel technically adopts only Zuckerman’s perspective, much of the tension in the novel is created through conflict between Zuckerman’s perspective and the perspectives of others. For example, although Zuckerman sees...