Point of View

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Point of View

• is a literary term which relates to who the
  narrator in a work is, from what voice or angle
  of vision or perspective a story or other
  literary work is told.Is

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Point of View is not Opinion

• Because the phrase point of view also can
  mean opinion (as in Bill had a different point
  of view) some readers have trouble understanding
  what the phrase means in literary terms.
• When we discuss POV, we are not really talking
  about what an authors theme or opinion is. We
  are simply identifying who the narrator is and
  what that voices relation to a story is.

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Questions to ask

• When you are thinking about a storys point of
  view, the first question to be asked is who is
  telling the story? or Who is the narrator? or
  From whose angle of vision is the story told?

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Point of View Types

• 1st person the narrator is a character in the
  story and speaks with the
  pronoun I to narrate.
• 3rd person the narrator is distanced from the
  story and speaks with a more impersonal voice
  using the pronouns she, he, or they

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Types of 3rd person POV

• 3rd person omniscient the narrator seems to
  know everything about every character, all their
  thoughts, motivations, and feelings. Frequently
  this narrative voice is assumed to be that of
  the storys author. But authors do not always
  intend for us to make that assumption. Most
  frequently, this narrative voice is simply
  unlocatable and cannot really be clearly
  identified.
• Omniscient means all knowing (omni all)

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• 3rd person limited the narrator knows the
  thoughts, motivations, and feelings of a limited
  number of characters, not of all characters. Most
  commonly, the narrator shows us the storys
  action through the consciousness of only one
  character.

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• 3rd person dramatic The story is laid out before
  readers like a drama and has no narrator.
  Instead, the characters move about and speak to
  one another as though on stage, and we learn from
  watching their actions and listening to their
  words.
• We are not given the characters thoughts nor are
  we told their motivations for speaking and acting
  as they do. Stories by Ernest Hemingway
  frequently use the 3rd person dramatic point of
  view. Review Hills Like White Elephants for an
  example. These stories often rely heavily on
  dialogue.

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Types of Narrators

• One important question to ask about any narrator
  is whether he or she is reliable or unreliable.
• Just as we consider the source when we are told
  real life stories, we should also consider the
  source when we read literature!
• In other words, we should consciously judge the
  character of any narrator.

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• Reliable narrator this narrator seems to be
  trustworthy, aware of what is true and untrue,
  and we believe that the narrator not only knows
  the truth but is also sharing it with readers.
• Usually, we trust a 3rd person omniscient
  narrator to be knowledgeable and truthful.

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• Unreliable narrator Narrators can be unreliable
  because they are not trustworthy. A narrator may
  be a liar or may show evidence of such bias that
  we come to distrust that narrative voice. A
  narrator could even be insane. Do you trust all
  of Edgar Allan Poes narrators? Many of them are
  1st person narrators. Because they are so
  involved in the story, they may not be
  perceiving events or other characters accurately.
  Or they may have a reason for withholding the
  truth.

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• Naïve narrator a narrator can be unreliable
  because he or she just does not understand
  events, even though he or she may be the
  narrative voice whom we must depend upon to tell
  us the story. For example, a child might be
  naïve, or a mentally retarded narrator might
  misconstrue events and the actions, even words,
  of other characters.

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• One famous example of a naïve narrator is found
  in William Faulkners novel The Sound and the
  Fury. There, the first section of the story is
  shown through the consciousness of Benjy, a
  33-year-old man who has the mental capacity of a
  5-year-old child. He also lacks a clear sense of
  time. Tension is established in the story when
  readers begin to understand that Benjy, the
  narrator upon whom they are depending, is naïve,
  i.e., does not understand the import of all he
  sees or of what other characters say. Though
  this early section of the novel is filtered
  through Benjys sensibility, readers are left to
  decipher on their own the actual events, times,
  and meanings.

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Questions about POV

• What is the point of view in this work?
• Is the narrator reliable?
• If the narrator is unreliable, why do I think so?
• How does the authors choice of narrator affect
  the story?
• How would the story differ if another narrator or
  voice were used, i.e., a 3rd person narrative
  were changed to 1st person, or vice versa? Or
  what if a different character were made the
  narrator?

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Some examples to consider

• Dee narrates Everyday Use.
• Asalamalakim narrates. Maggie narrates.
• --------------------------------------------------
  
• Aminadab narrates The Birthmark.
• Mrs. Snopes narrates Barn Burning.

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Other Variations on POV

• Interior Monologue perspective comes from
  within one characters mind and readers are aware
  of that characters thoughts.
• Stream of Consciousness perspective comes from
  within one characters mind and readers are aware
  of that characters thoughts, feelings,
  perceptions.

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Variations continued . . .

• Notice that the difference in the terms is that
  one relates to thoughts only while another
  includes feelings and perceptions.
• Some critics consider stream of consciousness
  and interior monologue as interchangeable.
• However. . . .

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However, continued . . . .

• Other critics make a clear distinction between
  thoughts and feelings/perceptions.
• These latter critics consider that interior
  monologue respects syntax (word order) and
  grammatical form, but stream of consciousness
  does not, being intended to show a direct
  quotation of the mind (Bowling, qtd in Prince
  92.) Thus stream
• often lacks punctuation, uses neologisms, and
  pays little heed to grammatical form.

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Importance of Point of View

• Point of View is one of the most important
  decisions an author makes in creating a story.
  Who will tell the story? Which characters do we
  as readers understand best? How does the point
  of view prejudice us for or against characters in
  a story?

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For more information
Works Cited
Stream of Consciousness. Dictionary of
Narratology. Gerald Prince, ed. Lincoln U of
Nebraska P, 1987.