Point of View and Perspective
Speaker
Narrator
Observer
Thinker
Sally Pfeifer
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Point of View Analysis in Close
Reading
• The first decision a writer of prose
fiction (novel/short story) will
make is point of view. At this
point in students’ language study
they should know the difference
between 1st person point of view
and 3rd person point of view--but
there is so much more to this
important literary technique.
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Point of View Analysis in Close
Reading
• The narrator who tells the story provides
the reader with one perspective about the
events.
• The author determines whose words are
being read, where the narrator stands in
relation to the events, and whether the
events are viewed from a fixed or mobile
position.
• The choice is deliberate; a different view
would change the story significantly.
• POV= precise effect on the meaning of
story
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1st Person Point Of View [Participant]
• The participant point of view is also called
the first-person point of view because
first-person pronouns (I, me, my, we, us,
our) are used to tell the story. This
narrator can function in one of two ways:
1. The narrator as a major character
in the story (the story is told by the
narrator and is chiefly about him).
2. The narrator as a minor character
(the narrator tells a story that
focuses on someone other than
herself, but she is still a character in
the story).
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The stance that the author gives this character is the first decision the
writer makes after deciding on 1st person point of view. The stance may
be one of three:
1. Subjective: a major or minor character who
reports the events as if they just happened,
and who appears to be unaware of the full
meaning of the events.
•
A special type of participant narrator is called
the innocent-eye narrator. [This character is
usually found in the subjective stance.] The
character telling the story may be a child or a
developmentally disabled individual; the
narrator is thus naive. The contrast between
what the innocent-eye narrator perceives and
what the reader understands may produce an
ironic effect.
•
Novel: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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“Eleven” Sandra Cisneros
Only today I wish I didn't have only
eleven years rattling inside me like
pennies in a tin Band-Aid box. Today I
wish I was one hundred and two
instead of eleven because if I was one
hundred and two I'd have known what
to say when Mrs. Price put the red
sweater on my desk. I would've known
how to tell her it wasn't mine instead of
just sitting there with that look on my
face and nothing coming out of my
mouth.
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1st Person Point of View
2. Detached: a major
character who recalls
events from the vantage
point of maturity and
may reflect on the
meaning of these events
from his/her past.
Novel: To Kill a Mockingbird
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“The Use of Force” William Carlos
Williams
Then I grasped the child's head with my left
hand and tried to get the wooden tongue
depressor between her teeth. She fought, with
clenched teeth, desperately! But now I also had
grown furious--at a child. I tried to hold myself
down but I couldn't. I know how to expose a
throat for inspection. And I did my best. When
finally I got the wooden spatula behind the last
teeth and just the point of it into the mouth
cavity, she opened up for an instant but before I
could see anything she came down again and
gripping the wooden blade between her molars
she reduced it to splinters before I could get it
out again.
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1st Person Point of View
3. Observer: a major or
minor character who
plays the role of
eyewitness and
confidant.
Novel: The Great Gatsby
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“The Fall of the House” of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
Upon my entrance, Usher arose from a
sofa on which he had been lying at full
length, and greeted me with a vivacious
warmth which had much in it, I at first
thought, of an overdone cordiality - of
the constrained effort of the ennuyé ;
man of the world. A glance, however, at
his countenance, convinced me of his
perfect sincerity. We sat down ; and for
some moments, while he spoke not, I
gazed upon him with a feeling half of
pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never
before so terribly altered, in so brief a
period, as had Roderick Usher !
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1st Person Point of View
•
•
Interior Monologue or Stream of
consciousness is a narrative method in
modern fiction in which the author tells the
story through an unbroken flow of thought
and awareness. The technique attempts to
capture exactly what is going on in the mind of
a character. The stance of this character may
be subjective or detached, but most often is
used with a major rather than a minor
character. The entire story may not employ
interior monologue--a character may break
with the plot of the story and reminisce or
reveal inner thoughts about an action, idea or
subject.
Novel: Johnny Got His Gun
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“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”
Katherine Anne Porter
It was good to have everything clean and
folded away, with the hair brushes and tonic
bottles sitting straight on the white,
embroidered linen: the day started without fuss
and the pantry shelves laid out with rows of jelly
glasses and brown jugs and white stone-china
jars with blue whirligigs and words painted on
them: coffee, tea, sugar, ginger, cinnamon,
allspice: and the bronze clock with the lion on
top nicely dusted off. The dust that lion could
collect in twenty-four hours! The box in the attic
with all those letters tied up, well, she’d have to
go through that tomorrow.
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1st Person Point of View
Dramatic Monologue: Someone
speaking aloud to another person.
He/she has a particular reason for
telling a particular story to his/her
particular audience and his speech,
as in real conversation, is
spontaneous and unrehearsed. We
can tell where he is and to whom he
is talking from references he makes in
his monologue.
Novel: Heart of Darkness
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“The Lady’s Maid” Katherine Mansfield
• Eleven o'clock. A knock at the door ...
I hope I haven't disturbed you,
madam. You weren't asleep - were
you? But I've just given my lady her
tea, and there was such a nice cup
over, I thought, perhaps ...
• ... Not at all, madam. I always make a
cup of tea last thing. She drinks it in
bed after her prayers to warm her up.
I put the kettle on when she kneels
down and I say to it, "Now you
needn't be in too much of a hurry to
say your prayers." But it's always
boiling before my lady is half through.
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1st Person Point of View
Letter Narration: In
these stories, a letter is
written in monologue.
Sometimes in a twoway correspondence.
Novel: Clarissa
Harlowe (18th Century)
Novel: Extremely Loud
and Incredibly Close
“A Bundle of Letters”
Henry James
Diary Narration: Like
monologists and
correspondents, the diarists of
the next two stories are
reacting to events almost as
they happen; like
correspondents, they write on
successive dates. But as
Diarists they are not writing to
anyone in particular. The
writers of diaries reveal or
perhaps betray, their own
states of mind as well as
report recent events.
Novel: Robinson Crusoe
“Flowers for Algernon” Keyes
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PURPOSES OF PARTICIPANT
POINTS OF VIEW
1. The first-person point of view offers
immediacy. The reader sees what is
perceived by the individual "I."
•
The first-person narrator can
approach other fictional characters as
closely as one human being can
approach another.
•
The first-person narrator can be an
eye-witness, observing what other
characters say and do.
•
The first-person narrator can
summarize events and retreat from a
scene to meditate on its significance.
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PURPOSES OF PARTICIPANT
POINTS OF VIEW
2. The first-person point of view allows the
reader to be discerning; the reader must
determine whether the narrator is trustworthy.
•
The first-person narrator understands other
characters only by observing what they say
and do. This narrator cannot enter the
minds of the other characters and is unable
to grasp their inner thoughts.
•
The first-person narrator outlines what a
character observes and feels, and thus the
narrator's conclusions may be inaccurate.
•
The reader may question the validity and
accuracy of the narrator's opinions.
3. The first-person point of view may contribute
to dramatic irony; there is a discrepancy
between what the narrator knows and what
the reader understands
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Third Person Point of View
[Non-Participant]
The non-participant point of
view is also called the thirdperson point of view because
third-person pronouns (he,
him, she, her, they, them) are
used to tell the story.
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The non-participant point of view can be
subdivided into three types:
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. Omniscient narrator. The author can enter the minds
of all the characters. "In these stories, the reader is
led among several points of view, all of which are
framed by the author's one point of view."
Purposes for Omniscient narrator: The omniscient
point of view allows great freedom in that the narrator
knows all there is to know about the characters,
externally and internally.
The third-person narrator describes what characters
are feeling and thinking.
The third-person narrator describes what characters
do.
The narrator may shift focus from the close view to the
larger perspective.
The narrator may comment on events and characters,
thus explaining their significance to the reader.
Novel: Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky
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“The Boarding House” James Joyce
• MRS. MOONEY was a butcher's
daughter. She was a woman who was
quite able to keep things to herself: a
determined woman.
• Polly knew that she was being
watched, but still her mother's
persistent silence could not be
misunderstood.
• Mr. Doran was very anxious indeed
this Sunday morning. He had made
two attempts to shave but his hand
had been so unsteady that he had
been obliged to desist.
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The 3rd person point of view can be subdivided into three types:
2. Selective (limited) omniscient narrator. The author
limits his omniscience to the minds of a few of the
characters or to the mind of a single character.
The author knows everything about 1-2 particular characters.
The story is portrayed through the eyes of one (or 2 next slide)
character, and there is a sense of distance from the other
characters.
The limited omniscient point of view approximates conditions of
life in that only one character's thoughts are known. The
story is more unified through the use of this point of view.
"What we mean by 'single character point of view' is that the
author takes us only where a certain character goes and
permits us to know only what that character is thinking and
feeling. The reader sees the world as that chosen person
sees it, but he also understands it as the author does, for the
hidden narrator is paraphrasing what the character thinks as
well as commenting directly. Thus the story is told from the
point of view of both the speaker and the character…"
Novel: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway
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“The Stone Boy” Gina Berriault
Arnold drew his overalls and raveling gray sweater over his
naked body. In the other narrow bed his brother Eugene
went on sleeping, undisturbed by the alarm clock's rusty ring.
Arnold, watching his brother sleeping, felt a peculiar dismay;
he was nine, six years younger than Eugie and in their waking
hours it was he who was subordinate. To dispel emphatically
his uneasy advantage over his sleeping brother, he threw
himself on the hump of Eugie's body.
"Get up! Get up!" he cried.
Arnold felt his brother twist away and saw the blankets lifted
in a great wing, and, all in an instant, he was lying on his back
under the covers with only his face showing, like a baby, and
Eugie was sprawled on top of him.
"Whassa matter with you?" asked Eugie in sleepy anger, his
face hanging close.
"Get up," Arnold repeated. "You said you'd pick peas with
me."
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3rd Person Limited Omniscient
• Dual Character Point of View:
"…presents the inner life of
two characters. One
character's point of view may
clearly dominate the other's
in extent or importance. The
two points of view may be
tightly interwoven or
alternated in long sections…"
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“The Shadow in the Rose Garden” D. H. Lawrence
He caught sight of his own face in a little
mirror, pulled his brown moustache, and
an alert interest sprang into his eyes. He
was not ill-favoured. He twisted his
moustache. His figure was rather small,
but alert and vigorous. As he turned from
the mirror a look of self-commiseration
mingled with his appreciation of his own
physiognomy….
“The garden isn’t open today,” he said
quietly to the attractive woman, who
was poised for retreat.
For a moment she was silent with surprise.
How should it be public at all?
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3rd Person Point of view can be sub-divided into
Three Types
3. Objective narrator. The author does not
enter a single mind, but instead records
what can be seen and heard. This type of
narrator is like a camera or a fly on the wall.
•
•
•
•
The objective point of view allows inferences to be
made by readers through their observance of
dialogue and external action. Readers are not
directly influenced by the author's statements.
Reader's perceptions are influenced more subtly by
the author's selection of diction and detail.
"By staying outside the minds of all his characters, a
narrator reduces his roles as informer to
eyewitness…he chooses not to present inner life at
all, at least not directly.“
These resemble Fairy Tales, Legends and Myths
Quoted material above from Moffett, James and Kenneth
R. McElheny, eds. Points of View. New York: New
American Library, 1956.
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“The Lottery” Shirley Jackson
The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny,
with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the
flowers were blossoming profusely and the
grass was richly green. The people of the
village began to gather in the square,
between the post office and the bank, around
ten o'clock; in some towns there were so many
people that the lottery took two days and had
to be started on June 26th, but in this village,
where there were only about three hundred
people, the whole lottery took less than two
hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the
morning and still be through in time to allow
the villagers to get home for noon dinner.
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