54 pages • 1-hour read
Between Sisters
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Literary Devices
Point of View
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
The novel is written from the third-person point of view. This third-person narrator alternates between Meg’s, Claire’s, and Joe’s storylines. In some passages, the narrator will inhabit Meg’s consciousness and describe the narrative world according to her perspective of it; in other passages, the narrator will move away from Meg and inhabit Claire’s or Joe’s consciousnesses, describing the narrative world according to their points of view.
The third-person narrator enacts the overarching relationships between the primary characters. While Meg, Claire, and Joe are living separate lives and have distinct internal experiences, they are all connected in a soulful way. The third-person narrator formally represents and affects this connection. Even when Meg, Claire, and Joe aren’t in the same space or are at odds with each other, the third-person narrator unites them. The author, therefore, uses this narrative vantage point to show how the characters’ hearts remain connected even amidst emotional challenges and across geographical and temporal divides.
The third-person limited point of view also captures the complexities of Meg’s, Claire’s, and Joe’s experiences with Personal Growth via Facing the Past. None of the main characters narrates their storyline in their voice. The third-person narrator has access to their psyches but enacts the distance Meg, Claire, and Joe all feel from themselves. Because they’re still growing and learning, they aren’t yet ready to claim their experiences in their own words.
Setting
Both macro and micro settings throughout the novel reify the primary characters’ internal experiences—when the characters are inside one space, they feel a certain way; alternatively, certain spaces act as symbolic representations of the characters’ complex emotions. For example, Meg’s ritzy Seattle condo often makes her feel alone. While the space is meticulously decorated, it’s cold and quiet. Meg tries to always keep the radio or television on to fill up this quiet, but the place has a sterility she can’t ignore. By way of contrast, a place like Joe’s house is filled with reminders of his past. The images of Diana he has propped around the space capture his resistance to letting go of his late wife; this space is a representation of his psychological entrapment in the past.
Other notable settings include Seattle, Hayden, the Athenian, Lake Chelan, and River’s Edge Resort. When Meg is in Seattle or at the Athenian, she feels acutely aware of her loneliness. The bustling city streets and packed, noisy tavern highlight her solitude and disconnection from others. Meanwhile, more rural settings like Hayden, Lake Chelan, and River’s Edge Resort are lodged in the natural world and offer the characters peace of mind. Hayden feels familiar to characters like Claire and Joe and affords them comfort. Trees and water surround Lake Chelan, and the location grants Claire an escape from and perspective on her life. River’s Edge is humble, but the setting dispels the characters’ larger life concerns and lets them focus on the moment.
Descriptive Language
The author uses descriptive language throughout the novel to paint a vivid narrative world and enact her characters’ complex internal experiences. Such passages of rich description are particularly evident when the narrator depicts both micro and macro settings. One example appears in Chapter 3 when Claire visits Lake Chelan:
As soon as they’d gotten their luggage from the car, they raced across the expanse of lawn, past the boat-rental shed, and plunged into the trees. The ground here was hard-packed dirt, carpeted with a hundred years’ worth of pine needles. Finally, they came to the clearing. A silvery wooden dock floated on the wavy blue water, tilting from side to side in a gentle rocking motion. Far out, across the lake, a white condo grouping sat amid the golden humps of the distant foothills (36).
The passage is rich with descriptive details, which set the scene. The reader can envision exactly where Claire is and what her mind is attuned to in her surroundings. Furthermore, the descriptive passage has metaphoric possibilities. While Claire is standing on the dirt and pine needles amidst the clearing, she can also see the white condos across the water. The condo grouping echoes the images of Meg’s condo in surrounding passages and represents Meg’s character. The condos on the other side of the lake thus symbolize the distance between Meg and Claire at this juncture of the novel. Such passages abound throughout Between Sisters and offer subtextual insight into the characters’ experiences.
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