The First Person Plural Point-of-View -- Jay Sennett
In an effort to further study point-of-view in the English language, I will read books with the first-person plural point-of-view. We the narrator is an unusual choice. It neither allows for a believably reflective stream of consciousness nor a believably true omniscience. In the balance it does offers a reader the opportunity to understand the collective human experience of us versus them. I recently completed Joan Chase’s “During the Reign of the Queen of Persia”. The author sets the story at a time in American life when women really had very little authority in the family structure. Women navigated power in circumspect and backhanded ways. Men dominated the family with violence and control. Against this backdrop, Chase describes the relationships between a woman (The Queen of Persia), her five daughters and four granddaughters. The four granddaughters narrate the novel. Observing Aunt Grace, her sisters (the narrators’ aunts) and the various men in...