Student Question
In The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare, who is the narrator?
Quick answer:
The narrator in The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare is an unnamed omniscient observer. This third-person narrator provides insight into the protagonist Daniel bar Jamin's inner thoughts and feelings, allowing readers to understand his emotions, struggles, and beliefs. While the story unfolds from Daniel's perspective, the narrator itself is not a character but rather a detached entity with full access to Daniel's mind.
The Bronze Bow centers on Daniel bar Jamin, a young Galilean boy growing up during the time Jesus was on the earth.
This story is told in third person, which means the narrator is an observer, and not necessarily a character in the story (see this breakdown of narrator types). However, the narrator here is an omniscient observer, since he/she knows Daniel’s inner thoughts and feelings (The Narrator).
So in this case, the narrator is technically an unnamed observer. However, you could say that Daniel is the narrator in a sense, since the entire book is told from his perspective, and the reader has complete access to his emotions, thoughts, struggles, and beliefs—which would not be the case unless you were inside the person’s head, or unless he sat down and told you every thought he had.
But to be completely accurate, you would say that the narrator is an omniscient observer.
This site goes into detail about seven different types of narrators in a story, and this one mentioned earlier breaks down first, second, and third person narrators.
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