The first person point of view also allows us to truly understand the full extent of Cyra’s pain, which is vital because it’s her pain that (at least originally) makes Akos important to her. Maybe you are more compassionate than I am and would have still have empathized with her, but the point is by telling Cyra’s story through first person Roth doesn’t run the risk of readers feeling apathetic or spiteful toward one of her main characters. Because of this, we might very well feel that she deserves her suffering. Even if Roth relays her entire backstory in third person, we meet Cyra after Akos, who has suffered greatly at the hands of Cyra’s family. Cyra has a very abrasive personality because of all she’s suffered at the hands of her father and brother in their quest for power, but we can’t understand that nearly as well if we’re on the outside looking in. To empathize with Cyra, we need to be inside her head. Plus, there are more benefits to this twist.
Even if we’re able to keep it straight in our heads who is talking for most of the time, the risk of confusion still isn’t worth it. If we need to slow down, go back to where the shift happened in the middle of a chapter and try to remind ourselves who is narrating, this will disrupt the momentum. This book is packed with momentum, the goal being for the reader to keep turning the pages as quickly as possible. Try making this kind of shift in the middle of the chapter, and she’s probably going to lose us. Roth avoids any confusion by containing these viewpoint shifts to the beginnings of chapters. This format works perfectly for a couple of reasons. This unique format is fascinating for many reasons, but Roth didn’t do this just to create an interesting talking point for us book lovers. What sets Roth’s use of multiple viewpoint characters apart is that she uses both third person (he, she) and first person (I, me).
In fact, this technique is becoming more and more popular, especially in YA. As we YA readers know, this in and of itself is not unique. Roth tells the story from both of their perspectives, alternating every couple of chapters. Her twist in Carve the Mark isn’t nearly as daring, but it still carries important implications for how the story unfolds.Ĭ arve the Mark is a fantasy story set on the planet of Thuvhe featuring two main characters, Akos and Cyra. In her Divergent series, she did the unthinkable by breaking rule number one of novel writing: killing off the main character (but we’re not going to go there). Veronica Roth clearly has no qualms about venturing off the beaten path.
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