Point of View
The Narrator
Point of View
Perspective through which a story is told
POV
Grammatical person
1st person = I, we
2nd person = you
third person = he, she, it, they
Grammatical person
1st
- The narrator refers to him- or herself as I or me
- Often the protagonist
- If not the protagonist, then observer
- Directly conveys unspoken thoughts of the narrator
- has access only to events he or she witnessed and to his or her own thoughts/feelings
- Can create a very intimate effect, drawing the reader into the story
2nd
- Narrator refers to one of the characters as "you" (this is not dialogue)
- Reader feels caught up in the plot
- Narrator has access only to events he or she witnessed and to his or her own thoughts/feelings
- Rare
3rd
Every character is referred to by the narrator as "he", "she", "it", or "they"
Never as "I" or "we", or "you"
Most common
3 types
3rd
3rd Person Objective
No direct access to feelings or thoughts
3rd Person Objective
3rd Person Limited
- Narrator gives only information (words, deeds, thoughts/feelings) that a single character would know
3rd Person Limited
3rd Person Omniscient
- narrator gives information (words, deeds, thoughts/feelings) that comes from more than one character
3rd Person Omniscient
How the Story is Told
How the story is told
Letter
Stream of consciousness
gives the narrator’s perspective by attempting to portray his or her thought processes
Unreliable narrator
POV Exercise Set 1
Exercises I
#1
#1
Describe the point of view and way the story is told
“I am an American, Chicago born – Chicago, that somber city – and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent. But a man's character is his fate, says Heraclitus, and in the end there isn't any way to disguise the nature of the knocks by acoustical work on the door or gloving the knuckles.”—Augie March, by Saul Bellow
#2
#2
Describe the point of view and way the story is told
“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 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. All might become clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder. Then again, it might not. A small voice inside you insists that this epidemic lack of clarity is a result of too much of that already.”—Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay MacInerney
#3
#3
Describe the point of view and way the story is told
“It was a little after four o’clock on an Indian summer afternoon. Some fifteen or twenty times since noon, Sandra, the maid, had come away from the lake-front window in the kitchen with her mouth set tight. This time as she came away, she absently untied and re-tied her apron strings, taking up what little slack her enormous waistline allowed.”—“Down at the Dinghy,” by J.D. Salinger
#4
Describe the point of view and way the story is told
#4
“the old windows of the posadas 2 glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.” –Ulysses, by James Joyce
#5
“She was Betty Porter, a being as much of magic as of muscle, and I who I ever am—Heath "Pokey" Howell, banker, commissioner of Luna County, New Mexico, and, as events will prove, the dimmest of sinners, male type. We'd known each other, yes, as acquaintances in this commodious desert, she a widow and I a recently estranged husband, and then, at the Valentine's Dance at the Mimbres Valley Country Club not so very long ago, we shed the selves ordinary folks had said howdy to and, fumbling fiercely at each other, we took up the private half of lived life.”—“All Things, All at Once,” by Lee K. Abbott
Exercises II
Read each selection and label it according to its type: first person, second person, third person objective, third person subjective (limited or omniscient)
Exercises II
#1
#1
The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side, where the station lay between two lines of rails in the sun, he could see no shade or trees. He sat in a shadow close against the side of the station, but even here the heat was unbearable. He could see through a curtain made of strings of bamboo beads, hung to keep out flies, into the bar. He sat at a table with the girl. It was very hot, and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid.
#2
#2
The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On my side, where the station lay between two lines of rails in the sun, I could see no shade or trees. I sat in a shadow close against the side of the station, but even here the heat was unbearable. I could see through a curtain made of strings of bamboo beads, hung to keep out flies, into the bar. I was sitting at a table with the girl. It was very hot, and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid.
#3
#3
The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was a warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid.
#4
The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On your side, where the station lay between two lines of rails in the sun, you could see no shade or trees. You sat in a shadow close against the side of the station, but even here the heat was unbearable. You could see through a curtain made of strings of bamboo beads, hung to keep out flies, into the bar. You were sitting at a table with the girl. It was very hot, and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid.
#5
The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side, where the station lay between two lines of rails in the sun, he could see no shade or trees. He sat in a shadow close against the side of the station, but even here the heat was unbearable for him. He sat at a table with the girl.
***
She liked the heat and disliked that he made a fuss over the sun. She could see through a curtain made of strings of bamboo beads, hung to keep out flies, into the bar. The express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid.
Exercises III
Here you will be rewriting J.D. Salinger’s text (following) several times to change the point of view. The original is in third person objective, and your task is to rewrite it as: 3rd person limited, 1st person
"Down at the Dinghy"
"Down at the Dinghy"
It was a little after four o’clock on an Indian summer afternoon. Some fifteen or twenty times since noon, Sandra, the maid, had come away from the lake-front window in the kitchen with her mouth set tight. This time as she came away, she absently untied and re-tied her apron strings, taking up what little slack her enormous waistline allowed