Elements of Literature

1
Elements of Literature Point of View Who Tells
the Story?

• by John Leggett

2
Overview

• Narrator - The person telling the story who may
  or may not be a character in the story.
• First-person - Narrator participates in action
  but sometimes has limited knowledge/vision.
• Second person - Narrator addresses the reader
  directly as though she is part of the story.
  (i.e. You walk into your bedroom.  You see
  clutter everywhere and)
• Third Person (Objective) - Narrator is
  unnamed/unidentified (a detached observer). Does
  not assume character's perspective and is not a
  character in the story. The narrator reports on
  events and lets the reader supply the meaning.
• Omniscient - All-knowing narrator (multiple
  perspectives). The narrator knows what each
  character is thinking and feeling, not just what
  they are doing throughout the story.  This type
  of narrator usually jumps around within the text,
  following one character for a few pages or
  chapters, and then switching to another character
  for a few pages, chapters, etc. Omniscient
  narrators also sometimes step out of a particular
  characters mind to evaluate him or her in some
  meaningful way.
• Limited Narrator is not all-knowing.

3
Whos Talking? 

• Youve probably noticed, in your life as well as
  in books, that who is telling a story has a lot
  to do with what gets told. The standpoint from
  which a story is told is called point of view.
  There are three points of view youre likely to
  come across in your reading and use in your
  writing third-person omniscient, first person,
  and third-person limited.

4
The Know it all

• In a story told from the third-person omniscient
  point of view, the narrator is outside the story
  and knows everything that happens and everything
  that goes on in the minds of all the characters 
• 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? 
• The omniscient narrator can describe the thoughts
  and feelings of different characters in the
  story. This narrator may also reveal information
  unknown to some or all of the charactersincluding
  what is happening in several places at the same
  time. This point of view reminds the reader of an
  important truth that there is more than one side
  to every story. 

5
Me, Me, Me

• The first-person point of view is the I point
  of view. Writers normally use the first person
  when they tell stories about their own lives. If
  youve ever written a letter or kept a diary,
  youve almost certainly written in the first
  person. Like nearly all autobiographies, Gary
  Paulsens Woodsong is told from the first-person
  point of view of the writer 
• Shock and pain came in waves and I had to close
  my eyes several times. All of this was in
  minutes that seemed like hours, and I realized
  that I was in serious trouble. 

6
Me, Me, Me

• In fiction narrated from the first-person point
  of view, the I who speaks is not the writer but
  a character in the story. That character is
  usually the main character, but not always. If
  Paulsen rewrote Woodsong as a novel, he might
  choose to tell it from the first-person point of
  view of his lead dog 
• I 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. 

7
Reliable Narrator?

• Just like people, narrators can lie or
  exaggerate.
• In a first-person point of view, the Narrator is
  a character, so is still subject to all human
  flaws.
• So ask yourself
• Fact or opinion?
• Whats his/her personality?
• Is there any motive to lie?

8
He Said, She Said 

• In the third-person limited point of view, the
  story is also told from a single characters
  standpointbut here the character is referred to
  in the third person, as he or she 
• 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. 

9
He Said, She Said 

• This point of view is popular with fiction
  writers because it allows them to give the reader
  information that the character would be unlikely
  to providesuch as a description of his or her
  own appearance.
• (I have beautiful, shiny black hair and big
  brown eyes with long lashes sounds a little
  strange unless the character is supposed to be
  conceited.) 

10
He Said, She Said 

• When you read a story told from the first-person
  or the third-person limited point of view, you
  share the thoughts and feelings of a single
  character and know only what he or she knows.
• Most writers of fiction published today tell
  their stories from the point of view of one
  character to help make the stories realistic.
• After all, we each go through life seeing things
  from only one persons point of viewour own.