Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First Person (Central Narrator) / Ben Byron
You know the pearl of wisdom that says that you shouldn't judge anyone until you've walked a mile in their shoes?
Welcome to Ben Byron's shoes. They're a pretty angry pair of kicks.
Our narrator deals with his mom's death (and, later, his dad's disappearance) in a way that's way different from his brothers. He's extremely angry and, eventually, we learn that he blames his dad for his mom's death—two pieces of information that likely affect the way in which he reports on his father's behavior.
This would likely be a very different book if the narrator had been, say, Dylan, whose relationship with his father isn't so hostile. For example, consider the brothers' reactions when their father goes missing. Ben is convinced his dad committed suicide; Dylan is sure it was an accident:
"What makes you think a man trying to drown himself would turn on the EPIRB?"
"What makes you think he was trying to drown himself?" (22.13-14)
Yeah: if Dylan had told the story, we might see Mr. Byron in a totally different light.
Ben seems to get a lot better at empathy—walking the proverbial mile in those proverbial shoes—when he's stranded with his brothers. At one point, when Gerry mentions their father (whom he's very worried about), Ben understands that he sees the world from one point of view, and Gerry sees it from another.
It's not very often that a door opens and all of a sudden you see life from another person's completely different point of view. (34.17)
From then on, he seems to take other people's experiences into consideration a lot more. It makes him a better brother, a better son, and pretty much an all-around better dude.