The transition from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2 of sefer Shemot is the change from a general, historiographical overview to a personal, biographical one.

We may describe the same chronicle on two different levels. On one hand, the national process; on the other hand, we see the private story of Moshe.  The descriptions parallel and complement one another. Each contains that which the other fails to convey. Here lies the crux of the introduction to Sefer Shemot: the realization that both chapters are taking place at the same time, in parallel; that these are not events that are following one another, but rather occurring simultaneously – this changes our understanding of the relationship between slavery and redemption, between anguish and salvation.

Courtesy of the Virtual Beit Midrash, Yeshivat Har Etzion