The Gift

5 Pages 1146 Words

The Gift

I am presenting an analysis of The Gift, a fictional novel by Danielle Steel. I will give a basic summary of the story line, and I intend to show the omniscient narrator’s point of view in analysis of the characters. I greatly recommend this novel for anyone to read, as it affected my emotions in several ways. I laughed and cried within the first chapter. The entire book makes you think long and hard about life, how precious it is, and how quickly it can be taken from you. We are all given gifts of different kinds in our lives. We have to learn to recognize and appreciate those gifts and mourn them when they are no longer with us.
A happy home in a small town is shattered by tragedy. A young healthy five-year-old named Annie senselessly and suddenly dies. Her parents’ marriage begins to unravel upon her death. Her sixteen-year-old brother is going downhill. Suddenly, a pregnant stranger stops in town and decides to stay. The 16-year-old brother falls in love with the pregnant teenager, and hope springs anew in the unfortunate Whittaker family. Life is a gift revealed in this novel that evokes many emotional tears and lots of laughter. The ending leaves you wanting to write the author and beg her to tell you what happens next. The omniscient narrator’s point of view allows the reader to feel the emotions of all the characters, as well as see both sides of a conversation as it is happening. The setting is in a 1950’s small Midwestern town. Children play in the streets, on the skating pond, and attend the movie house. The story is told over a time period of several months, from December 1952 through December 1953. The book opens with the story of the death of the five-year-old who is adored by her family. The novel ends with a surprise gift to that family.
The omniscient narrator’s point of view reveals all the thoughts and emotions of each character, making it very easy to empathize with them....