Point of ViewWindows on the World

AP English LiteratureHilltop High School

Mrs. Demangos

from Discovering Literature, Guth & Rico, 2nd ed. (153-156) and Perrine’s Literature, Structure, Sound, & Sense, Arp & Johnson, 10th ed. (237-243)

Henry James

“The deepest quality of a work of art will always be the quality of the mind of the producer.”

Edith Wharton“The effect of compactness and instantaneity sought in the short story is attained mainly by the observance of two ‘Unities’—the old traditional one of time, and that other, more modern and complex, which requires that any rapidly enacted episode shall be seen through only one pair of eyes.”

Windows on the World

What we call reality is our perception of reality—a picture we have constructed in our minds from input that is biased or incomplete.

Windows on the World

We read a story in part to share imaginatively in a writer’s perception of reality. We share in a writer’s vision of the world.

Much modern fiction takes this awareness of the angle of vision a step further…

MODERNWRITERS

Windows on the World

Who is telling the story in the story?

Apart from the author who is writing the story …

Who is the narrator observing the events?

From what angle is the narrator observing the events?

Points of View

First person

Second person

Third-person omniscient

Third-person limited

Third-person objective

a) Minor character

b) Major character

a) Minor character

b) Major character

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW

Point of View

In the first person point of view the author disappears into one of the characters, who tells the story in the first person. This character may be either a major or a minor character, protagonist or observer, and it will make considerable difference whether the protagonist tells the story or someone else tells it.

In “A Rose for Emily” the story is told in the unusual first-person plural, from the vantage point of the townspeople observing Emily’s life through the years.

FIRST PERSON

Point of View

The following is told in the first person from the point of view of the grasshopper:

FIRST PERSON

Cold and hungry, I watched the ant tugging over the snow a piece of corn he had stored up last summer. My feelers twitched, and I was conscious of a tic in my left hind leg. Finally I could bear it no longer. “Please, friend ant,” I asked, “may I have a bit of your corn?”

Point of View

FIRST PERSON

He looked me up and down. “What were you doing all last summer?” he asked, rather too smugly it seemed to me. “I sang from dawn till dark,” I said innocently, remembering the happy times. “Well,” he said, with a priggish sneer, “since you sang all summer, you can dance all winter.”

Point of View

The first person point of view shares the virtues and limitations of the third-person limited:

a) Gain in immediacy and reality since we get the story directly from the participant.

b) No opportunity, however, for interpretation by the author.

c) Offers excellent opportunities for dramatic irony and for studies in limited or blunted human perceptiveness.

FIRST PERSON

Point of View

Story seems deeply felt.“I” speaking in the story is talking about

scenes and people from personal experience.

May have a confessional tone; the writer may be unburdening his or her heart.

Reader must remember that the autobiographical material is fictionalized—shaped by the creative imagination.

FIRST PERSON AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL

Point of View

The “I” speaking to us then becomes a persona—an assumed identity.

The distance between person and persona varies greatly from story to story, or writer to writer.

The persona of the narrator may have much in common with the author. Or else it may represent the author in disguise, as if wearing a mask.

FIRST PERSON AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL

Point of View

We may see the story through the eyes of someone at the center of the action.

We may also see events through the eyes of someone on the sidelines, who is not a major player.

This person becomes our scout, our reliable source, our “chosen interpreter”

A reflector—anything that happens in the story will reach us by way of his or her perceptions.

FIRST PERSON OBSERVER

Point of View

A special irony may make us smile at the naive narrator who seems to know less than an alert reader.

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn watches the world with wide-open innocent eyes—recognizing human duplicity or vindictiveness long after the more knowing reader.

FIRST PERSON OBSERVER

Point of View

You use the second-person point of view to address the reader.

The second person uses the pronouns “you,” “your,” and “yours.” We use these three pronouns when addressing one, or more than one, person.

Second person is often appropriate for e-mail messages, presentations, and business and technical writing.

Can sound didactic.

SECOND PERSON

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/first-second-and-third-person.aspx

GRAMMAR GIRL

Point of View

Rare; authors seldom speak directly to the reader.

When you encounter this point of view, pay attention. Why? The author has made a daring choice, probably with a specific purpose in mind.

Most times, second-person point of view draws the reader into the story, almost making the reader a participant in the action.

SECOND PERSON

Point of View

written in second person to make the experiences and tribulations of the unnamed main character more personal and intimate for the reader:

“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.” —Opening lines of Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City (1984)

SECOND PERSON

Point of View

The story is told in the third person by a narrator whose knowledge and prerogatives are unlimited.

Narrator is free to go wherever they wish, to peer inside the minds and hearts of character and tell us what they are thinking and feeling.

Narrator can interpret behavior and can comment on the significance of their stories.

They know it all; they can tell us as much or as little as they please.

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT

Point of View

The following is told from the omniscient point of view. Notice that in it we are told not only what both characters do and say, but also what they think and feel:

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT

Weary in every limb, the ant tugged over the snow a piece of corn he had stored up last summer. It would taste mighty good at dinner tonight. A grasshopper, cold and hungry, looked on. Finally he could bear it no longer. “Please, friend ant, may I have a bite of corn?"

Point of View

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT “What were you doing all last summer?” asked the ant. He looked the grasshopper up and down. He knew its kind. “I sang from dawn till dark,” replied the grasshopper, happily unaware of what was coming next. “Well,” said the ant, hardly bothering to conceal his contempt, “since you sang all summer, you can dance all winter.”

He who idles when he is young will have nothing when he’s old.

Point of View

The following is told from the omniscient point of view. Notice that in it we are told not only what both characters do and say, but also what they think and feel:

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT

Weary in every limb, the ant tugged over the snow a piece of corn he had stored up last summer. It would taste mighty good at dinner tonight. A grasshopper, cold and hungry, looked on. Finally he could bear it no longer. “Please, friend ant, may I have a bite of corn?"

Point of View

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT “What were you doing all last summer?” asked the ant. He looked the grasshopper up and down. He knew its kind. “I sang from dawn till dark,” replied the grasshopper, happily unaware of what was coming next. “Well,” said the ant, hardly bothering to conceal his contempt, “since you sang all summer, you can dance all winter.”

He who idles when he is young will have nothing when he’s old.

Point of View

The most flexible point of view; permits the widest scope

Most subject to abuse. The narrator is in constant danger of coming between the reader and the story, or…

The continual shifting of viewpoint from character to character may cause a breakdown in coherence or unity

Skillfully used it enables the author to achieve simultaneous breadth and depth

Unskillfully used it can destroy the illusion of reality

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT

Point of View

Some authors guide readers through their fictional world.

The Intruding Author feels free to comment, to chat with us as the readers, to take us into his or her confidence.

We are very much aware of the author’s presence as the narrator.

Every so often the author steps into the story from the outside, interrupting it to offer asides, philosophical reflections, a personal view of life.

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT

The Intruding Author

Point of View

The intrusive narrator was very popular in literature until the 20th century. It was used by many novelists, including Leo Tolstoy, George Eliot and Henry Fielding.

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT

Intruding

Author

Intruding Author

Intruding Author

Point of View

In Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” Jane is the first-person narrator, but Brontë often intrudes and speaks to the reader directly, even using the word “reader."

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT

Intruding Author

Point of View

“A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play; and when I draw up the curtain this time, reader, you must fancy you see a room in the George Inn at Millcote, with such large figured papering on the walls as inns have; such a carpet, such furniture, such ornaments on the mantle-piece…”

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT

Intruding Author

Point of View

The story is told in the third person, but from the viewpoint of one character in the story.

Character is a filter through whose eyes and mind the writer looks at events telling us what the character sees, hears, thinks, and feels.

Writer may interpret the character’s thoughts and behavior.

Writer limits themselves to this character’s perceptions.

Character may be minor or major character, participant or observer.

THIRD PERSON LIMITED

Point of View

Notice we are told nothing of what the grasshopper thinks or feels. We see and hear and know of him only the ant sees and hears and knows.

THIRD PERSON LIMITED

Weary in every limb, the ant tugged over the snow a piece of corn he had stored up last summer. It would taste mighty good at dinner tonight. It was then that he noticed the grasshopper, looking cold and pinched. “Please, friend ant, may I have a bite of your corn?” asked the grasshopper.

Point of View

THIRD PERSON LIMITED He looked the grasshopper up and down. “What were you doing all last summer?” he asked. He knew its kind. “I sang from dawn till dark,” replied the grasshopper. “Well,” said the ant, hardly bothering to conceal his contempt, “since you sang all summer, you can dance all winter.”

Point of View

Notice we are told nothing of what the grasshopper thinks or feels. We see and hear and know of him only the ant sees and hears and knows.

THIRD PERSON LIMITED

Weary in every limb, the ant tugged over the snow a piece of corn he had stored up last summer. It would taste mighty good at dinner tonight. It was then that he noticed the grasshopper, looking cold and pinched. “Please, friend ant, may I have a bite of your corn?” asked the grasshopper.

Point of View

THIRD PERSON LIMITED He looked the grasshopper up and down. “What were you doing all last summer?” he asked. He knew its kind. “I sang from dawn till dark,” replied the grasshopper. “Well,” said the ant, hardly bothering to conceal his contempt, “since you sang all summer, you can dance all winter.”

Point of View

Approximates more closely than the omniscient the conditions of real life.

Narrator is a ready-made unifying element.Additional device of characterization; actions

and motives reveal biases or limitations.Limited field of observation.Clumsy writers will have character listening

at keyholes, accidentally overhearing important conversations, or coincidentally being present when important events occur.

THIRD PERSON LIMITED

Point of View

Stream of consciousness presents the apparently random thoughts going through a character’s head within a certain period of time, mingling memory and present experiences, and employing transitional links that are psychological rather than strictly logical.

Variant of third-person limited point of view

THIRD PERSON LIMITED

stream of consciousness

“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter

Point of View

Narrator disappears behind a camera that can go anywhere but can record only what is seen and heard.

It cannot comment, interpret, or enter a character’s mind.

Also called the dramatic point of view; reader is placed in the position of spectator at a movie or play

THIRD PERSON OBJECTIVE

Point of View

Reader may see the character and hear what they say, but they must infer what they think or feel and what they are like.

Purest example: story written entirely in dialogue. As soon as writers add their words of their own, they begin to interpret through their very choice of words.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is essentially objective in its narration.

THIRD PERSON OBJECTIVE

Point of View

This version is told from the objective point of view since we are nowhere taken into the thoughts and feelings of the characters.

THIRD PERSON OBJECTIVE

The ant tugged over the snow a piece of corn he had store up last summer, perspiring in spite of the cold. A grasshopper, his feelers twitching and with a tic in his left hind leg, looked on for some time. Finally, he asked, “Please, friend and, may I have a bite of your corn?”

Point of View

THIRD PERSON OBJECTIVE The ant looked the grasshopper up and down. “What were you doing all last summer?” he snapped. “I sang from dawn till dark,” replied the grasshopper, not changing his tone. “Well,” said the ant, and a faint smile crept into his face, “since you sang all summer, you can dance all winter.”

Point of View

What the character thinks and feels is seen from the outside; readers draw their own inferences.

Relies heavily on external action and dialogue.

Offers no opportunities for direct interpretation by the author; little comment, a minimum of editorializing, judging, or preaching.

Example: Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”

THIRD PERSON OBJECTIVE

Examining Point of View

For readers, the examination of point of view may be important both for understanding and for evaluating the story.

1) Are the events being interpreted by a narrator or by one of the characters?

2) Has the writer chosen the point of view for maximum revelation of the material or for another reason?

3) Is the author deliberately misleading readers by presenting events through a character who is falsely interpreting them?

Examining Point of View

4) Has the author used the selected point of view fairly and consistently?

5) Is the writer consistent in their use of point of view?

6) If the point of view shifts, does it shift for a just artistic reason?

Serious literary writers choose and use point of view so as to yield ultimately the greatest possible insight, either in fullness or in intensity.