How to Be Both

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, death, and gender discrimination.

George is one of the novel’s two protagonists. Part 1, “Camera,” is written from a third-person limited point of view centered on George, providing an intimate account of her experiences, emotions, and thoughts. George also features heavily in Part 2, “Eyes,” as the disembodied Francescho observes her. His first-person point of view provides the reader with an alternative, outsider perspective of George’s character and behavior.

In many ways, George is a typical middle-class, English teenage girl. She is intelligent, eloquent, and introspective. She is uncertain in matters of sexuality and questions whether she is a “passionate” person. Prior to her mother’s death, she has a loving relationship with her parents, with all the expected irritations and minor disagreements common between adolescents and authority figures. After, she seems to feel both exasperated and resentful of her father’s newly acquired drinking habits, often complaining inwardly about the smell of alcohol on him. The loss of her mother, and her father’s grief leads George to assume a more parental role for her younger brother Henry, taking care of him and offering comfort.