Chap.
5—
point
of
view
From Perrine’s Structure, Sound, and Sense
Coach Adams
Fall 2006
Two questions to determin pov
• 1. Who tells this story?
• 2. What (how much) do they know?
Your options are:
Omniscient (3rd person)
Limited omniscient (3rd) Major or minor char.
1st person
Objective (3rd)
Major or minor
Omniscient narrators know all
• From Aesop’s fables: (and p. 143)
“Weary in every limb, the ant tugged over the snow a piece of
corn he had stored up last summer. It would taste mighty good
at dinner tonight.
A grasshopper, cold and hungry, looked on. Finally he could bear
it no longer. “Please, friend ant, may I have a bite of corn?”
“What were you doing all summer?” asked the ant. He looked
the grasshopper up and down. He knew its kind.
“I sang from dawn till dark,” replied the grasshopper, happily
unaware of what was coming next.
“Well,” said the ant, hardly bothering to conceal his contempt,
“since you sang all summer, you can dance all winter.”
HE WHO IDLES WHEN HE’S YOUNG WILL HAVE NOTHING
WHEN HE’S OLD.
Now…how do you know pov?
• Look back at the story
• Highlight anything that only an
omniscient being could possible know
• Compare our ideas.
Omniscience can be limited
• The level of omniscience can vary—
consider the stories we’ve read. Whose
minds did we enter, and whose were we
barred from?
• Summary on p. 143
Limited omniscience
• Still 3rd person, but focuses primarily on
the thoughts and feelings of a single
character
• See page 144, a revised version of “The
Ant and the Grasshopper.”
1st person
• Only allows us inside the head of one
character, who quite literally tells us the
story in their own words
• The author and the character appear to
be the same (but they’re not)
• Can be a major or minor character
(“Defender of the Faith” vs. “The Child by
Tiger”)
Good and bad re: 1st person pov
• Seems more “real” and emotionally
connective—it’s like watching Oprah
• Doesn’t allow the author to interpret or filter
events—and can cause us to forget to,
because we’re so emotionally invested
• Allows authors to make mistakes more easily
(especially with knowledge or language)
• Allows irony or a look at the problems of limited
perception
objective
• Author becomes a camera—he only
reports, never interprets.
– P. 171, “Hills Like White Elephants”
– Read and annotate, explaining where
explanation is needed.
– Then answer #s 3, 5-8
The stories
• “Paul’s Case,” p. 148—answer 1,3,6-8
• “The Lottery,” p. 436
– Answer handout questions
– Figure out what the point of view is.
– Essay: Discuss how point of view enforces
the story’s theme in the readers mind.