In The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill uses multiple perspectives to develop suspense, foreshadowing, irony, and theme. So before we get to these big ticket literary devices, it’s worthwhile to spend some time on the seemingly humbler topic of point of view and perspective.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon is written in third person omniscient, but the author’s use of multiple perspectives deserves way more attention than the typical “What’s the point of view?” discussion will render. The real treasure lies in analyzing how the author uses multiple perspectives to build suspense, theme, irony, etc.
We’ll get into this more in future posts, but here are some notes about multiple perspectives in The Girl Who Drank the Moon:
Each character has a limited perspective. We (the reader) know more than any single character and we watch as their limited knowledge (of themselves and each other) is expanded over the course of the story. This gives the story a feeling of revelation–each character is slowly learning something about themselves, the world, and other characters. Examples of incomplete perspectives/knowledge in the book:
- Luna doesn’t know her own origins. She doesn’t know she’s a witch.
- Xan doesn’t know why the babies are abandoned each year.
- The madwoman doesn’t know where her daughter is.
- Ignatia doesn’t know that Xan is still alive.
- Gherland doesn’t know that a witch really does take the baby each year.
- Fyrian doesn’t know how small he is.
- Antain doesn’t know the elders are lying about the witch.
- No one knows that Ignatia is the actual witch.
Each character is missing some key information. By the climax and conclusion, all of the missing pieces have been found and everyone ends up with a more complete view of reality.
Here’s another way in which each perspective is limited–Each character has a different (and incomplete) understanding of the witch:
- The elders don’t really believe there is a witch.
- The people of the Protectorate believe a witch requires them to sacrifice a baby each year.
- Xan is a witch, but she doesn’t know why the Protectorate abandons a baby each year. She does not demand a baby be sacrificed each year.
- Luna doesn’t know about magic/witches for most of her childhood.
- The Madwomen slowly learns that Ignatia is a witch.
The identity of the witch is something the reader knows early on, but it remains a mystery to the other characters until the climax.
If you want to dig into multiple perspectives during your novel study, here are some good discussion questions to get students thinking:
- How do each of the main characters envision the witch? What information do they have about the witch, what information are they missing?
- What are some things we know about Xan/Luna/Madwoman that she doesn’t know about herself? Why does the author want us to know this? How would the story be different if we didn’t know?
- Why did the author choose to tell the story from multiple perspective rather than a single perspective? What would be lost if it was only told through one character’s eyes?
- Do you find it difficult to read a book that switches perspective so often? What other books have you read like this?
These questions will inevitably lead to a discussion of writer’s craft–why did Kelly Barnhill want us to know so much more than the characters? How does this make the book more exciting? What is she saying about how we experience the world?
Lots of popular children’s books feature multiple perspectives, Charlotte’s Web and Wonder are two good examples. But they don’t always use multiple perspectives to build suspense and irony the way Barnhill does in this book. It provides a great opportunity to explore how multiple plot devices interact with each other.
This is a series for teachers who are reading The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill with their students. You’ll read about focusing your novel study around major literary devices found in the book. If you’re looking for activities to go with the book, you can preview my ready made novel study here.
