What is Point of View?
The term “point of view” has many applications, from video game development to the interpretation of art. This page will discuss point of view as it pertains to the study of reading and literature. When studying the perspective of the narrator, the reader is concerned with the relationship between the person telling the story (the narrator) and the agents referred to by the story teller (the characters).
Modes of Narration
There are three key terms used in the study of narrative view point: first-person, third-person limited, and third-person omniscient. Each term refers to a specific mode of narration defined by two things: the distance of the narrator from the story (the pronoun case) and how much the narrator reveals about the thoughts and feelings of the characters (narrative access). Let’s take a closer look at each term.
First-Person Narration
In this mode, the narrator is usually the protagonist or central character in the story. But even if this character is not the protagonist, he or she is directly involved in the events of the story and is telling the tale “first hand.” First-person narration is easy to identify, because the narrator will be telling the story from “I’s” perspective. Readers should watch for the narrator’s use of first-person pronouns- “I, me, my, our, us, we, myself, and ourselves,” as these will usually indicate that the passage is narrated from first-person perspective. Remember, with this skill readers are trying to identify the perspective of the narrator; therefore, one must ignore the dialogue of characters (indicated by “quotation marks”) and solely focus on narration, otherwise one is not analyzing the narrator’s point of view.
Third-Person Limited:
When a narrator uses third-person limited perspective, the narrator’s perspective is limited to the internal workings of one character. In other words, the narrator reveals the thoughts and feelings of one character through explicit narration.
Third-Person Omniscient:
In this mode of narration, the narrator grants readers the most access to characters’ thoughts and feelings. With third-person omniscient narration, the narration will reveal more than one characters’ internal workings. The base word omni means “all,” and scient means “knowing,” so omniscient roughly translates to “all knowing.” In this case the etymology is accurate, because in omniscient narration, the narrator is all knowing.
Identifying Narrative Perspective
Directions: Read the following passages, write the narrator’s point of view, and explain your answer.
P.O.V.: First-Person, Third-person Limited, Third-Person Omniscient.
1. “Sunday was my only leisure time. I spent this in a sort of beast-like stupor, between sleep and wake, under some large tree. I sank down again, mourning over my wretched condition. I was sometimes prompted to take my life, and that of Covey, but was prevented by a combination of hope and fear.”
Narrator’s Point of View: _______________________________________________________________
How do you know? ___________________________________________________________________
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2. “Goldilocks was a proud and defiant little girl who’d been told many times by her mother to stay out of the woods, but she paid little attention to others, especially her elders, giving lots of attention instead to herself and her own desires. One day, just to show that she could, she wandered deep into the center of the forest, farther from home than ever before. In a clearing she noticed a small cottage, smoke issuing from the chimney. She thought it was quite an ugly little cottage, but she also thought it might be a place where she could get a little something to eat and drink.”
Narrator’s Point of View: _______________________________________________________________
How do you know? ___________________________________________________________________
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3. “A Child was standing on a street-corner. He leaned with one shoulder against a high board-fence and swayed the other to and fro, the while kicking carelessly at the gravel. Sunshine beat upon the cobbles, and a lazy summer wind raised yellow dust which trailed in clouds down the avenue. Clattering trucks moved with indistinctness through it. The child stood dreamily gazing.”
Narrator’s Point of View: _______________________________________________________________
How do you know? ___________________________________________________________________
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4. “Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come him from work. Now and again she would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by made it nearer the time when he would come. For her, this was always a blissful time of day. She knew he didn’t want to speak much until the first drink was finished, and she, on her side, was content to sit quietly, enjoying his company after the long hours alone in the house. She loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair, for the way he came in a door, or moved slowly across the room with long strides.”
Narrator’s Point of View: _______________________________________________________________
How do you know? ___________________________________________________________________
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5. We were driving along the road from Treguier to Kervanda. We passed at a smart trot between the hedges topping an earth wall on each side of the road; then at the foot of the steep ascent before Ploumar the horse dropped into a walk, and the driver jumped down heavily from the box. He flicked his whip and climbed the incline, stepping clumsily uphill by the side of the carriage, one hand on the footboard, his eyes on the ground. After a while he lifted his head, pointed up the road with the end of the whip, and said: "The idiot!" I was startled by his outburst.
Narrator’s Point of View: _______________________________________________________________
How do you know? ___________________________________________________________________
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6. The bell rang furiously and, when Miss Parker went to the tube, a furious voice called out in a piercing North of Ireland accent:
"Send Farrington here!"
Miss Parker returned to her machine, saying to a man who was writing at a desk:
"Mr. Alleyne wants you upstairs."
The man muttered "Blast him!" under his breath and pushed back his chair to stand up. When he stood up he was tall and of great bulk. He had a hanging face, dark wine-coloured, with fair eyebrows and moustache: his eyes bulged forward slightly and the whites of them were dirty. He lifted up the counter and, passing by the clients, went out of the office with a heavy step.
Narrator’s Point of View: _______________________________________________________________
How do you know? ___________________________________________________________________
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