 Atheis uses three narrative voices , the first Indonesian novel to do so . The novel starts with a third @-@ person description of Rusli and Kartini 's visit to the Japanese police headquarters after hearing of Hasan 's death . Afterwards , the narrator , referred to only as " saya " , describes in the first person how he met Hasan and how the main character came to tell him his life 's story . This is followed by what is described by the original narrator as a manuscript by Hasan , which tells Hasan 's life story from his own point of view using the less respectful term " aku " . After a brief recollection of the narrator 's last meeting with Hasan in the first person , using " saya " , the last portion of the book describes Hasan 's death in the third person omniscient . According to Teeuw , this serves to avoid caricaturing the characters by giving an objective presentation of them before transitioning to their point of view . However , Mihardja wrote that it was simply to facilitate the completion of the plot . 
