The Power of Perspective: An Analysis of Perspective in Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone

By Daniela G. 

Perspective is the view through the eyes and mind of a character. The point of view in a story is essential to a story's plot and impact on the readers.


She's Come Undone, included in Oprah's Book Club, is a great example of a well written story in first-person. Readers may also be surprise when they learn that the novel, written in first-person in the perspective of a female character, is by Wally Lamb, a male author. He is able to convincingly write in the perspective of the opposite gender that can often be difficult for writers to achieve.

First-person content carries traits of ownership and makes it more authoritative. This helps build trust with the readers. First person also allows the readers to feel like they are experiencing what the character is experiencing (Cohen). Stories that are told in the "I" perspective can also provide insight to the narrator's thoughts and memories. This makes an emotional appeal that helps bridge a relationship between the author and the reader. The only issue with writing in first-person is that it does not provide perspectives of other characters. The reader is only given one side of the story which limits how much the reader can know of the story. In other words, the reader knows as much as the narrator. Some stories are best written in first-person and others are preferred in third person.

She's Come Undone is the story about Dolores Price and her life through her childhood into adulthood. Dolores' journey consists of dealing with pain, seeking love, and renewal. The story begins with her childhood where she comes across many situations that would later shape her personality. As her teenage years emerge, she goes through a traumatic event. Dolores then finds herself following the same routine: watching TV while filling herself with potato chips, Pepsi, and other foods her mother buys, believing it would help Dolores cope with her traumatic experience. At the start of womanhood, Dolores weighs two hundred fifty-seven pounds with no care of the future. Life does not get any easier for her and she finds herself wanting to escape from the world. When she faces the issues in her life rather than avoiding them, Dolores gives herself another chance to renew her life for the better.

Lamb develops the main character, Dolores, well throughout the novel. He mentions issues that makes the voice of the main character pose as a convincing female. Firstly, the main character encounters realistic issues women may face such as feeling maternal instincts. Issues such as having an abortion and dealing with the guilt and depression that may follow are present in Dolores. Lamb progressively displays how Dolores' thoughts change and mature as she grows older.

Psychologist Dr. Vivian Diller believes that authors who write stories as a character of their own gender utilize experiences of their own into their character and write "inside out." When authors write about characters of the opposite sex, their perspective shifts from "outside in." In other words, writers often have to see in another perspective different from their own which may be difficult to do. Eli Gottlieb, author of The Face Thief, announces that writing in a female's perspective "in the first person is to make a hubristic leap." However, stories such as Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd, are written well in the perspective of the opposite gender that "it truly never dawns on the reader...that there is a man behind the marvelous female storyteller" (Willens). Another well-known story written with the author of the opposite gender to the character is Ethan Frome. Ethan Frome has a male title character. It is also written by the viewpoint of a male narrator visiting the Massachusetts town Ethan lives in (Astor).

Many writers take on the challenge of writing in the perspective of the opposite gender. Wally Lamb is among the authors who have succeeded in writing a convincing female voice tracing her life through her childhood to adulthood.

Works Cited or Discussed

Astor, Dave. "When Authors Create Title Characters of the Opposite Sex."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

Cohen, Georgy. "The Power of the First Person Perspective." Meet Content. Meet Content LLC, 15 July 2014. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Lamb, Wally. She's Come Undone: A Novel. New York: Pocket, 1992. Print.

Willens, Michele. "The Mixed Results of Male Authors Writing Female Characters." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 02 Mar. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.