Final Book Blog

Comment on the perspective from which the book is told and how the author’s choice affects your relationship with the book’s content.

Peace Like a River is narrated by the middle child of the family. This perspective helps the reader to relate to the book. The age level of this book guarantees that the reader has been eleven years old, and therefore, knows the viewpoints and what it is like to be an eleven year old. Also, he is narrating the book as if he is telling a past story. He provides information that you would never find out just from the storyline, like how Swede ends up being a professor. This creates a stronger bond between the characters and the reader. It helps the reader to feel more compassion for the characters to know what they end up doing in the future.
Also, throughout the book the narrator expresses him own feelings. He is "annoyed that [they] were out of money and Christmas [was] almost [there]" and this makes the reader connect to that emotion and involve their feelings into the book (122). Everyone knows the feeling of annoyance and when reading the book, feel the same twinge that they get whenever they are annoyed and relate directly to the character. Having the character being the narrator and telling his life story in past tense creates a feeling that nothing bad can happen to him because he is alive to tell the story. This might connect the reader to him and have more compassion knowing that he survives. These points affect the readers relationship with the books content through the perspective of the narrator.