Title: Points of view in Literature
1Points of view in Literature
2What is a point of view?
- The perspective from which a speaker or writer
recounts a narrative or presents information.
3Points of view types
4First person
- This perspective is told from the p.o.v. of the
main character. It allows the author to bring the
reader closer to the character, and create more
sympathy for the character's struggles. - We see everything through this character's eyes
- The narrator uses the pronouns I or we
5Third person
- In order to limit the information, and focus the
attention of the reader onto one character, the
author will sometimes tell a story by entering
the mind of one key character (usually the
protagonist). The narrator uses the pronouns he
or she
6Omniscient
- Told from the p.o.v. of an outside narrator, the
"omniscient" author nevertheless gets inside the
thoughts and feelings of any character he or she
wishes (in other words, two or more characters).
This p.o.v. offers a lot of information, and is
suitable for large, complex novels. - The narrator can jump from character to
character, so he will use all kinds of pronouns
I, he, she, we wtc
7Points of view examples
8Read the following fragments and tell which
point of view are they using
9I was having the time of my life tearing down
that new trail at the head of the team. All of a
sudden I noticed how light the sled felt. I
looked around, and there was our musher lying on
the ice down in the gully.Â
As the musher lay trying to recover, he realized
how much trouble he was in. The dogs could be
miles away by now, he thought, wincing. Above
the gully, Obeah growled and pulled the team
around. He knew they had to get back to their
musherbut how?Â
B
A
Shock and pain came in waves and Paulsen had to
close his eyes several times. All of this was in
minutes that seemed like hours, and he realized
that he was in serious trouble.Â
C