Defnition of Point of View

All literature must be narrated or recorded by someone, and an author must

decide who that someone will be. The decision is an important one, since the
selection of narrator determines the perspective, or point of view, from which
the story will be told, as well as the amount and kind of information a reader
will be given.
FIRST!"RS#$ $ARRAT#RS
Firstperson narrators are one of the characters in the story. They may be
either a ma%or or minor character. &hichever character tells the story, he or
she has limited knowledge. It follows that this will a'ect %ust what we learn.
Another concern with a (rstperson narrator is bias. Is the narrator biased)
Since the character*narrator tells the story from his or her own perspective,
there may be distortion or omission. This raises the +uestion of reliability.
,an we trust what the narrator tells us)
#ne of the strengths of the (rstperson point of view is a sense of
directness or immediacy. &e get the information (rst hand, as if we were
there when the events occurred. &e may (nd the narrator addressing us
-the readers. or we may (nd a dramatic conte/t where we overhear what is
said to another character.
&hat di'erence is there between a major and minor character as
narrator) The major characters may have pre%udices or needs to %ustify their
own actions to themselves which may distort what we0re told. The minor
characters observe the action without being an integral part of it, and they
lack essential information. &e may have to guess about what really
happened or is happening.
The (rst person narrator speaks in the (rst person, saying 1I saw...,1 1I
knew...,1 1I reali2ed...,1 etc. The House on Mango Street, The Catcher in the
Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Heart of Darkness, and Moby Dick are
e/amples of books that tell a story from the (rst person point of view.
#ther points of view include the self-conscious narrative, which draws attention to its own
(ctional nature -as in Fielding0s Tom ones 345678.9 its cousin the self-refexive narrative,
which describes an act of (ctional composition within its story -like a playwithinaplay.9 and
the fallible or unreliable narrator, as in :enry ;ames0 The Turn of the Scre! -4<7<. -see
structural irony ..
T:IR= !"RS#$>
There are several variations of the third person point of view. The narrator
may know everything -Third !erson #mniscient point of view., the narrator
may be only able to report on what is seen and heard -Third !erson #b%ective
point of view., or the narrator may be able to see the thoughts and feelings of
only one character and not the others -Third !erson ?imited point of view..
1. Objective. The narrator simply report s what he or she observes,
including conversations and descriptions of the scene.
&ith the third person ob%ective point of view, the narrator knows only what
can be heard and seen from outside the characters -think of the
narrator as recording events like a movie camera.. The thoughts and
emotions of the characters are unavailable, so the story must speak
for itself. The main disadvantage of this point of view is that the lack
of emotion can make it feel very cold and uninvolved. A good writer
can make use of small details to compensate, however.
The third person ob%ective narrator is not a character in the story> the reader
would most often think of this narrator as 1the author.1 The third person
ob%ective narrator refers to all characters in the third person, saying 1:e
looked...1 1She %umped...,1 etc. They are only able to make ob%ective
observations9 however, they have no nowled!e of what is !oin! on in
the mind of the characters, or anything else that would not be observable
to the reader if they were to enter the story. "f Mice and Men is told from the
third person ob%ective point of view.
2. "hird #erson$Omniscient. The narrator, along with knowing the events of
the story, knows the thoughts and feelings of the other characters and is
able to share these with us.
&ith the third person omniscient point of view, not only does the narrator know
everything, allowin! him or her to mention the thou!hts and feelin!s of
any character, but he or she may also insert editorial comments. -An
intrusive narrator will comment and evaluate as in the novels of =ickens,
Austen, and Tolstoy. An unobtrusive -impartial. narrator does not comment and
evaluate along the way as in Flaubert@s Madame #o$ary and :emingway@s short
stories..
The narrative can also skip around to different places and times, and fill in back-story at any
point. The disadvantages of this point of view are that it is difficult to maintain a consistent
voice, it can feel impersonal to the reader, and it is less believable than the other options.
The Hobbit, The Scarlet Letter, and The Old Man and the Sea are books that tell a story
from the third person omniscient point of view.
A. Third !erson %imited &or 'ubjective$(. &ith a third person limited -or
limited omniscient. point of view, the narrator knows everything about one
character -or only a few characters., including thoughts and feelings, but
knows the other characters only through that one person. "his ind of
view#oint can be so close to the character that it is nearly a frst
#erson #.o.v., or it can pull back for a broader view. Because of its
advantages, this point of view is often thought of as the defaultto be
used unless there is !ood reason not to. -,an sound like a streamof
consciousness..
6. )otatin! %imited. #ne way to avoid the limitations of a limited point of
view -that only one character is known from the inside. without the
disadvantages of an omniscient point of view -impersonality and
implausibility. is to use a limited viewpoint that switches between several
characters. This allows the reader to get inside more than one character0s
head, but maintains a consistent narrative voice. ,rawford Cilian calls this
1episodically limited1 third person omniscient.
Dialogue: conversation provides our information. We overhear but are not told.