POINT OF VIEW

WHO is telling the story?

 POINT OF VIEW
Point of view is the person who is TELLING
the story.
It is not always the author!
Today, we are going to look at two different
types of point of view…1st and 2nd. We will
look at 3rd person point of view in a few days.
There are good and bad things about all of
these!
 1 Person Point of View
st

Uses the following

words…
I
ME
WE
US
MY
OUR
First Person Point of View
In first person point of
view, the narrator is a
main character in the
story.
The benefits to this point
of view are that the
reader can see things
from the eyes of a main
character and they can
usually understand that
character better.
 First Person Point of View
“If you really want to hear
Sometimes, first about it, the first thing you’ll
person point of view probably want to know is
where I was born, and what
can be a negative my lousy childhood was like,
thing. and how my parents were
occupied and all before they
The reader only gets to had me, and all that David
see things through one Copperfield kind of crap, but
I don’t feel like going into it,
person’s eyes! if you want to know the
truth.”
-- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher
in the Rye (1951)
Second Person Point of View
Uses words like…
You
Yours
Your
Yourself

Second Person Point of

View is VERY
RARE!
 Second Person Point of View
Often, second person point of view uses “you” and
presents commands.
The narrator will also be talking to themselves a lot.
Example…
“You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this
at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot
say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details
are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved
head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge.”
--Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City (1984)
Third Person Omniscient
Definition: narrator is not
in the story, but sees into
the minds of ALL
characters – outside
looking in (omni=all;
sci=science=knowledge 
all knowing)
Pronouns: he, she, they,
etc.
Readers Know:
thoughts/feelings of all
characters
Example of Third Person
Omniscient Point of View
The house was big, old, and Levin, though he lived
alone, heated and occupied all of it. He knew that it
was even wrong and contrary to his new plans, but this
house was a whole world for Levin. It was the world in
which his father and mother had lived and died. They
had lived a life which for Levin seemed the ideal of all
perfection and which he dreamed of renewing with his
wife, with his family.
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Third Person Limited Omniscient
Definition: narrator is not
a character in the story,
but a reporter of ONE of
the character’s thoughts
and feelings – outside
looking in
Pronouns: he, she, they,
etc.
Readers Know:
thoughts/feelings of ONE
character
Third Person Limited Example
“The girl he loved was shy
and quick and the smallest in
the class, and usually she said
nothing, but one day she
opened her mouth and roared,
and when the teacher—it was
French class– asked her what
she was doing, she said, in
French, I am a lion, and he
wanted to smell her breath
and put his hand against the
rumblings in her throat”
--Elizabeth Graver, “The Boy
Who Fell Forty Feet” (1993)
 Guided Practice
"Christmas won't be Christmas without any
presents,"grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
"It's so dreadful to be poor!"sighed Meg, looking down at
her old dress.
"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have lots of pretty
things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with
an injured sniff.
"We've got father and mother, and each other, anyhow”,
said Beth, contentedly, from her corner.
The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened
at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly:
"We haven't got father, and shall not have him for a long
time." She didn't say "perhaps never,“ but each silently
added it, thinking of father far away, where the fighting was.
From Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
 Guided Practice
1. The above passage The point of view used in the
above passage allows the reader
uses… to…
A. First person point of A. Understand the thoughts,
feelings, and personalities of all
view characters
B. Second person point B. Feel like the narrator is
speaking directly to them.
of view C. Understand the thoughts,
C. Third person limited feelings, and personality of one
character
point of view D.Understand the thoughts,
D. Third person feelings, and personality of one
character while watching the
omniscient point of view actions of all characters.
 Guided Practice
‘The memory is this: a blue
blanket in a basket that pricks her
bare legs, and the world turning
over as she tumbles out. A flash of 3. What point of view
trees, sky, clouds, and the hard
driveway of dirt and gravel. Then is used in this
she is lifted up and held tight. Kind passage?
faces, she remembers, but that
might be the later memory of her __________________
imagination. Still, when the
memory comes, sometimes many __________________
times a night and in the day, the __________________
arms that hold her are always
safe.”
From Baby by Patricia Machlachlan
How do you know?
 Guided Practice
“As soon as the snow melts, I will go to
Rass and fetch my mother. At Crisfield I’ll
board the ferry, climbing down into the
cabin where the women always ride, but
after forty minutes of sitting on the hard
cabin bench, I’ll stand up to peer out of the
high forward windows, straining for the
first sight of my island.”
 Guided Practice
5. The advantage to the
4. What point of view is reader of using this point of
view to narrate this story is…
used in the previous A. Understand the thoughts,
passage? feelings, and personalities of all
characters
A. First person B. Feel like the narrator is speaking
directly to them.
B. Second person C. Understand the thoughts,
feelings, and personality of one
C. Third person limited character
omniscient D.Understand the thoughts,
feelings, and personality of one
D. Third person objective character while watching the
actions of all characters.