In the Other Side of Truth, the narrator (Sade) is the one
who presents things with a first-person viewpoint. This is obvious as she
takes in information about the world around her, and leaves the
reader confused in some situations where she herself is confused. This can
sometimes be annoying when you want her to reach out and explore
something or you want her to explain why she is flashbacks to a certain
period.
This however, adds to the realism of the story and
encourages imagination into what the real purpose was of someone Sade
describes in the background. The story-telling and minds eye of Sade
gives you a different perspective of how you might of reacted in a
certain situation. Sade never knows every- thing that is happening
around her or why, because of this, we are left with the same feelings.
However saying that, when Sade is going through customs and
immigration, the book gives a perspective we hear about on the news or on
a report every- now and then, but we never get a look inside of a
child going through the asylum process and how they are feeling when
told to do things that they relate to how criminals are treated, such
as when Sade and her brother feels when having their fingerprints taken.
Since we only get one viewpoint through the majority of the
story (there may be more that I just haven't been able to identify) we
get a closed look at what is happening all around Sade during her
journey, we do however get a complete overview of Sade’s feelings throughout
the adventure.
Sade often relates her feelings to ones she has had before
and this sometimes evolves into a flashback where she is often within
close range of her mother, this tells the reader that Sade was often
able to deal with her emotions but without her mother it has made it immensely difficult to deal with emotions she felt uncomfortable but
safe experiencing when her mother was close by.
When Sade feels unconvinced that she should give any
information away to the officials in immigration and customs, she often looks at
her brother Femi to see if he is going to say something or to see what
he feels after she has said something, this shows the Sade cares
about her brother and his emotional state and suggests that they are
very close and that the killing of their mother has brought them
somewhat closer together.
Although it is not obvious, Sade and Femi have very
different ways of coping with the loss of their mother. Sade often has
flashbacks to when her mother was there to provide support, but it seems like
Femi (at the start of the book) does not seem to understand why his
mother is gone nor that she is probably not going to be coming back soon. But since we only get to go into Sade's mind and feelings,
we cannot be sure that this is true; which is unfortunate since I would
really like to know what he is feeling inside and how he has chosen to
deal with it.
