First Person Point of View

"My name is Kathy H.  I'm thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for over eleven years." - Never Let Me Go, page 3.

One of the first things I noticed about this book, literally because this is the first sentence of the novel, that was different from Brave New World, was that it was written in the first person point of view.  This can be both a good and a bad thing.  On the one hand, this means the reader has total insight into the main character's mind and emotional feelings.  But on the other hand, Kathy's thoughts, feelings, and observations are the only ones we can truly see.  We don't know exactly what other characters are thinking and feeling unless they actually come out and directly say it.  For the most part, we can only know how Kathy perceives these characters to be thinking and feeling.  The effectiveness of this literary term is that it creates a more intimate relationship between the reader and Kathy.  Kathy can tell the reader her deepest and darkest secrets and emotions that she might not even tell her best friend.  In fact, it's almost as if the reader is Kathy's best friend during the times he or she is reading the book.