The novel is told in short, episodic. Why has otsuka chosen to structure her narrative in thiscway

The novel When the Emperor Was Divine is divided into five parts, or chapters. The first four chapters are distinct from the final chapter in that the first four have third person narrators while the last has a first person narrator. The fourth chapter is distinct from the previous three in that while it has a third person narrator it comes from a collective perspective of two characters simultaneously rather than simply from a single character.

The plot progression is linear and chronological except for occasional and brief flashbacks. Most of the flashbacks concern the night of the father's arrest that occurred more than three months prior to the action at the opening of the novel.

The internal structures of the chapters differ from one another. The first two chapters, told from the perspective of the mother and daughter respectively, have a starting point and proceed mostly in a seamless fashion to the end. By contrast, the third chapter told from the perspective of the boy and encompassing the longest timeframe is more a series of vignettes rather than a linear narrative. The episodic nature of the third chapter does not detract from a vivid portrayal of conditions within the camp. In fact, this piece-by-piece aspect of the chapter illustrates the boredom of the camp and how each day is like the next.

The final chapter lacks a definite physical setting, and its structure is tight and focused. It provides a sort of parting thought on incarceration of human beings based on nothing more than national origin.