Point of View
&
Theme
• Point of View is both important and informative.
• Discuss its importance in this picture.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3hAVT2sDqQ
• How was Will Smith’s point of view different from the
others?
Third Person
Limited
• This narrator is a detached observer.
• They may follow a character around, but they do not
comment on that character’s thoughts and feelings.
• The disadvantage of this narrator is that readers don’t
usually make as deep a connection with the character
rd
3
Examples of
Person
Limited
• Kay Boyle’s “Astronomer’s Wife” – unconventional
3rd PL because the narrator is very close to Mrs.
Ames and records her thoughts and feelings.
• Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny
Weatherall” – 3PL stream-of-consciousness
• JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series: She mostly focuses
on Harry, but strays at times to other characters’
hearts and minds.
Omniscient
• Narrators who know everything
• Can enter the minds of all characters
to reveal what they think and feel.
• Disadvantages: Can lead to judgment
about the actions of some characters.
Distracts readers and leads them to
question who the main character is.
Omniscient Examples
• Huxley’s Brave New World: We get to know everything about
every character—even the subconscious details they don't
realize themselves. Check this out: "He knew that what he was
saying was absurd in its injustice … But in spite of this
knowledge … Bernard continued perversely to nourish … a
secret grievance against the Savage."
• Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God: In the first chapter,
it’s clear that the narrator is omniscient because she gives
insight into the thoughts of Janie, Pheoby, and the gossipy
Eatonville women sitting on their porches. Janie’s life story
appears as a flashback told by the omniscient narrator. The
only portions told in Janie’s voice are in quotations, so those
sections are not strict narration, but dialogue.
• Also: 1984 and Pride and Prejudice
First Person
• This is when the character of the story is the narrator.
• This leads to a much closer understanding of the
character since the reader knows what the
character thinks and why he or she is doing what
they are doing.
• The major disadvantage of this narrator is the
character’s trustworthiness. Are we prejudiced
against the characters that get in our hero's way?
o Pay attention to clues given to see if this narrator is trustworthy.
Examples of First Person
• Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”: The narrator is leading
us through the changes he undergoes over the course of
a single evening. He has a somewhat offensive sense of
humor, and isn't afraid to make himself the butt of all the
jokes.
• Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five: Called Peripheral
First Person. The narrator is definitely a character in this
novel: we get first-person sections in both the first and
last chapters, and he pops up periodically throughout
Billy's travels through Germany. The narrator also spends
most of his time telling us about Billy rather than about his
own life, which is why we can call him peripheral:
he's everywhere, but he's on the sidelines.
• Create a sentence with your partner about the
people in this picture using each of the points of
view.
A Bazaar is a large open
air market place
•
“Observing me, the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to
buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she
seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty. I looked humbly
at the great jars that stood like eastern guards at either side of the
dark entrance to the stall and murmured:
'No, thank you.'
The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and went
back to the two young men. They began to talk of the same subject.
Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over her shoulder.
I lingered before her stall, though I knew my stay was useless, to make
my interest in her wares seem the more real. Then I turned away slowly
and walked down the middle of the bazaar. I allowed the two
pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket. I heard a voice call
from one end of the gallery that the light was out. The upper part of
the hall was now completely dark.
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and
derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”
•
•
What details from the scene reveal the narrator’s conclusions about
himself and his trip to the bazaar?
Based on the details provided by the narrator, how do you feel about
the woman in the scene.
Theme
• Theme is a story’s idea or point.
o For a fable, the theme is its moral
o For a parable it is its teaching
o For a short story it is its implied view of life.
• You find theme by abstracting it from the details of
the characters; from their lives, thoughts, and
actions.
Example of Theme
• One theme in Carver’s “Cathedral” revolves around
the idea of transformation. Talk to your team about
some of the transformations that occur.
Carver’s “Cathedral” transformations:
from sober to intoxicated
sleeping to waking
hungry to full
Even though these are small transformations, something about
Carver's style helps us feel the importance of these seemingly
small and usual changes.
• Bigger transformation: The 3 main characters are at a
crossroads. Before they come together for the evening, we
know that someone or something has to change or someone
is likely to get hurt. Fortunately, change does occur, and in a
beautiful and unexpected way. By the end of the tale, all the
characters will experience dramatic change, and even
renewed vision. "Cathedral" explores the possibility of positive
transformation through creative communication.
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“Observing me, the young lady came over and asked me did I
wish to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging;
she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty. I
looked humbly at the great jars that stood like eastern guards at
either side of the dark entrance to the stall and murmured:
'No, thank you.'
The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and
went back to the two young men. They began to talk of the
same subject. Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over
her shoulder.
I lingered before her stall, though I knew my stay was useless, to
make my interest in her wares seem the more real. Then I turned
away slowly and walked down the middle of the bazaar. I
allowed the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my
pocket. I heard a voice call from one end of the gallery that the
light was out. The upper part of the hall was now completely
dark.
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and
derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”
•
Create a statement of theme that can be inferred from the
scene above.