How does Lily's perspective shape readers' understanding of events?

• A. It emphasizes external events over inner life.
• B. It shows Lily's perspective is unreliable.
• C. It offers a distant, unreliable narrator.
• D. It provides an intimate, evolving view of truth, healing, and growth.

Answer: (D)

Lily’s narration is the lens through which we experience events, and that lens changes as she grows. Her voice moves from a child’s mix of longing and confusion to a more reflective, nuanced understanding, especially as she forms bonds with August, the Boatwright sisters, and Rosaleen. Because we see through her inner thoughts and feelings, the truth of what happens unfolds as something Lily reinterprets and remakes—not as a fixed ledger of external events, but as something born from healing, relationships, and self-discovery. This intimate, evolving view invites readers to follow how Lily’s beliefs, defenses, and understanding of reality shift over time, leading to a deeper sense of truth, healing, and growth.