Point of View and T.C.Boyle
Point of View
• Author = Narrator
• Quick Definition: The perspective from which
a story is told.
• Notes from Chapter 2 in Literature: An
Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and
Writing
Identifying the story’s point of view:
• Identify the narrator
• Describe the part he/she plays in the events
• Describe any limits placed on his/her knowledge
Narrator as Participant (Writing in First Person)
• Major Character (such as Huck Finn)
• Minor Character (an observer in the story: Nick
Carraway from The Great Gatsby)
Other Characteristics to Consider with First
Person:
• Innocent or Naïve narrator: a character who does not
fully comprehend significance of events
• Unreliable Narrator: a character who is not trustworthy
(Holden Caulfield, Narrator in Yellow Wall-Paper)
• Stream of Consciousness: a narrator presents thoughts
as they flow in his/her mind – random connections
(Narrator in “A Haunted House,” Holden Caulfield,
narrator in Portrait [3rd person s-o-c])
• Interior monologue: character’s thoughts in an
organized fashion
Narrator as Nonparticipant (Writing in Third Person)
• All-knowing (seeing into the mind of all/some of the
characters)
▫ Total omniscience: seeing into the mind of all characters
▫ Editorial omniscience: contributing opinion
▫ Impartial omniscience: does not judge actions or characters
• Limited (selective) omniscience: seeing events through
the eyes of a single character – major or minor
• Objective (Fly on the Wall): does not enter the mind of
any character, but describes events from the outside –
narrator seems to disappear. Reader is left to infer
characteristics of the characters
Unusual Narrators
• Not human (bird, dog, spirit)
• Second person “you”
Purpose
The author’s choice of a particular point of view
has an effect on how the events, scenes, characters,
etc. are perceived by the reader. Particular points
of view may reveal to the reader the irony of a
situation or create a certain level of pathos for a
character. Point of view also determines what and
when a reader learns. Always consider the effect an
author’s choice of a particular point of view has on
the story and how/when information is revealed.
“Greasy Lake” Question 1
• What is the point of view. How does it contribute
to the tone that the speaker takes?
Question 2
• Boyle has stated that satire “can hold up certain
attitudes as being fraudulent, and in doing that
suggest that that the opposite might be an
appropriate way to behave. And I hope that if my
work is socially redemptive, it is in that way”
(interview with David Stanton in Poets & Writers,
Jan/Feb. 1990).
• Find examples of the narrator indirectly
commenting on his past. And, do you think this
piece is “socially redemptive”? Explain.
Question 3
• What is the effect of the following similes:
▫ Page 127: “Blood was beating in my ears, my
hands were shaking, my heart turning over like a
dirtbike in the wrong gear.”
▫ Page 129: “When I reached out to touch it, it gave
like a rubber duck, it gave like flesh.”
What other uses of figurative language add to this
effect? Find examples.
Question 4
• Twice in “Greasy Lake” – in paragraph 2 and 32
– appear the words, “This was nature.” What
contrasts do you find between the “nature” of the
narrator’s earlier and later views? (from text book)
• What is the effect of such a contrast?
Question 5
• What is the effect of the repeated war imagery?
How does it sit in this piece?
Homework for Tuesday
• Read William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and
answer questions 2 and 8