Content Warning: This section contains references to bigotry and enslavement in a fantasy setting, as well as to forced reproduction and child abuse.

“Hmm. No. I’m telling this wrong. After all, a person is herself, and others. Relationships chisel the final shape of one’s being. I am me, and you. Damaya was herself and the family that rejected her and the people of the Fulcrum who chiseled her to a fine point. Syenite was Alabaster and Innon and the people of poor lost Allia and Meov. Now you are Tirimo and the ash-strewn road’s walkers and your dead children...and also the living one who remains. Whom you will get back.”

The opening paragraph reveals a change in narrative structure. The previous novel focused on three different perspectives: Damaya, Syenite, and Essun, who were revealed to be the same person at different periods in their life. Now the narrator (revealed to be Hoa in The Fifth Season) acknowledges that there is more to a person than just their individual memories and experiences: They also comprise all the people they intersect with because every meaningful encounter has the potential to reshape someone’s identity. Thus, his retelling of Essun’s story will focus on Nassun and Schaffa to give a more complete picture of Essun. Moreover, in each case in Hoa lists, pronouns or proper nouns, which normally constitute a singular being or identity, combine with other pronouns or proper nouns to form the whole identity in question. This draws attention to the idea that identity is less continuous and cohesive than it appears at first glance; the memories, experiences, and relationships that form a person’s identity can have stark rifts between them. Arriving at a coherent sense of self is something the three major characters will wrestle with throughout the text.