Point of View
Windows on the World
AP English Literature
Hilltop High School
Mrs. Demangos
from Discovering Literature, Guth & Rico, 2nd ed. (153-156) and
Perrine’s Literature, Structure, Sound, & Sense, Arp & Johnson, 10th ed.
(237-243)
Henry James
“The deepest
quality of a
work of art will
always be the
quality of the
mind of the
producer.”
Edith Wharton
“The effect of
compactness and
instantaneity sought in
the short story is
attained mainly by the
observance of two
‘Unities’—the old
traditional one of time,
and that other, more
modern and complex,
which requires that any
rapidly enacted episode
shall be seen through
only one pair of eyes.”
 What
we call reality is our
perception of reality—a picture we
have constructed in our minds from
input that is biased or incomplete.
Windows on the World
 We
read a story in part
to share imaginatively in
a writer’s perception of
reality. We share in a
writer’s vision of the
world.
 Much modern fiction
takes this awareness of
the angle of vision a
step further…
Windows on the World
Apart from the author who is writing the story …
Who is the
narrator
observing
the events?
From what angle
is the narrator
observing the
events?
Who is
telling the
story in the
story?
Windows on the World

First person

Second person

Third-person omniscient

Third-person limited

Third-person objective
Points of View
a) Minor character
b) Major character
a) Minor character
b) Major character


In the first person point of view the author
disappears into one of the characters, who
tells the story in the first person. This
character may be either a major or a minor
character, protagonist or observer, and it will
make considerable difference whether the
protagonist tells the story or someone else
tells it.
In “A Rose for Emily” the story is told in the
unusual first-person plural, from the vantage
point of the townspeople observing Emily’s
life through the years.
Point of View

The following is told in the first person from the point
of view of the grasshopper:
Cold and hungry, I watched the
ant tugging over the snow a piece of
corn he had stored up last summer.
My feelers twitched, and I was
conscious of a tic in my left hind leg.
Finally I could bear it no longer.
“Please, friend ant,” I asked, “may
I have a bit of your corn?”
Point of View
He looked me up and down.
“What were you doing all last
summer?” he asked, rather too
smugly it seemed to me.
“I sang from dawn till dark,” I
said innocently, remembering the
happy times.
“Well,” he said, with a priggish
sneer, “since you sang all summer,
you can dance all winter.”
Point of View
The first person point of view shares the
virtues and limitations of the third-person
limited:
a) Gain in immediacy and reality since we
get the story directly from the
participant.
b) No opportunity, however, for
interpretation by the author.
c) Offers excellent opportunities for
dramatic irony and for studies in limited
or blunted human perceptiveness.

Point of View
Story seems deeply felt.
 “I” speaking in the story is talking about
scenes and people from personal
experience.
 May have a confessional tone; the writer
may be unburdening his or her heart.
 Reader must remember that the
autobiographical material is fictionalized—
shaped by the creative imagination.

Point of View
The “I” speaking to  The persona of the
narrator may have
us then becomes a
much in common
persona—an
with the author. Or
assumed identity.
else it may represent
 The distance
the author in
between person and disguise, as if
wearing a mask.
persona varies
greatly from story
to story, or writer to
writer.

Point of View
We may see the story through the eyes of
someone at the center of the action.
 We may also see events through the eyes
of someone on the sidelines, who is not a
major player.
 This person becomes our scout, our
reliable source, our “chosen interpreter”
 A reflector—anything that happens in
the story will reach us by way of his or
her perceptions.

Point of View
A special irony may make us
smile at the naive narrator
who seems to know less than
an alert reader.
 Mark Twain’s Huckleberry
Finn watches the world with
wide-open innocent eyes—
recognizing human duplicity
or vindictiveness long after
the more knowing reader.

Point of View
You use the second-person point
of view to address the reader.
 The second person uses the
pronouns “you,” “your,” and
“yours.” We use these three
pronouns when addressing one,
or more than one, person.
 Second person is often
appropriate for e-mail messages,
presentations, and business and
technical writing.
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/first Can sound didactic. second-and-third-person.aspx

Point of View
Rare; authors seldom speak directly
to the reader.
 When you encounter this point of
view, pay attention. Why? The author
has made a daring choice, probably
with a specific purpose in mind.
 Most times, second-person point of
view draws the reader into the story,
almost making the reader a
participant in the action.

Point of View

written in second person to
make the experiences and
tribulations of the unnamed
main character more personal
and intimate for the reader:
“You are not the kind of guy who would be
at a place like this at this time of the
morning. But here you are, and you cannot
say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar,
although the details are fuzzy.”
—Opening lines of Jay McInerney's Bright
Lights, Big City (1984)
Point of View




The story is told in the third person by a
narrator whose knowledge and prerogatives
are unlimited.
Narrator is free to go wherever they wish, to
peer inside the minds and hearts of character
and tell us what they are thinking and feeling.
Narrator can interpret behavior and can
comment on the significance of their stories.
They know it all; they can tell us as much or
as little as they please.
Point of View

The following is told from the omniscient point of
view. Notice that in it we are told not only what both
characters do and say, but also what they think and
feel:
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?"
Point of View
“What were you doing all last
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 is young
will have nothing when he’s old.
Point of View

The following is told from the omniscient point of
view. Notice that in it we are told not only what both
characters do and say, but also what they think and
feel:
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?"
Point of View
“What were you doing all last
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 is young
will have nothing when he’s old.
Point of View





The most flexible point of view; permits the
widest scope
Most subject to abuse. The narrator is in
constant danger of coming between the reader
and the story, or…
The continual shifting of viewpoint from
character to character may cause a breakdown
in coherence or unity
Skillfully used it enables the author to achieve
simultaneous breadth and depth
Unskillfully used it can destroy the illusion of
reality
Point of View




Some authors guide readers through their
fictional world.
The Intruding Author feels free to
comment, to chat with us as the readers, to
take us into his or her confidence.
We are very much aware of the author’s
presence as the narrator.
Every so often the author steps into the story
from the outside, interrupting it to offer
asides, philosophical reflections, a personal
view of life.
Point of View

The intrusive narrator was very popular in
literature until the 20th century. It was used
by many novelists, including Leo Tolstoy,
George Eliot and Henry Fielding.
Point of View

In Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” Jane is
the first-person narrator, but Brontë
often intrudes and speaks to the reader
directly, even using the word “reader."
Point of View
“A new chapter in a novel is
something like a new scene in a play;
and when I draw up the curtain this
time, reader, you must fancy you see
a room in the George Inn at Millcote,
with such large figured papering on
the walls as inns have; such a carpet,
such furniture, such ornaments on
the mantle-piece…”
Point of View





The story is told in the third person, but from
the viewpoint of one character in the story.
Character is a filter through whose eyes and
mind the writer looks at events telling us what
the character sees, hears, thinks, and feels.
Writer may interpret the character’s thoughts
and behavior.
Writer limits themselves to this character’s
perceptions.
Character may be minor or major character,
participant or observer.
Point of View

Notice we are told nothing of what the grasshopper
thinks or feels. We see and hear and know of him only
the ant sees and hears and knows.
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. It was
then that he noticed the grasshopper,
looking cold and pinched.
“Please, friend ant, may I have a
bite of your corn?” asked the
grasshopper.
Point of View
He looked the grasshopper up and
down. “What were you doing all last
summer?” he asked. He knew its kind.
“I sang from dawn till dark,”
replied the grasshopper.
“Well,” said the ant, hardly
bothering to conceal his contempt,
“since you sang all summer, you can
dance all winter.”
Point of View

Notice we are told nothing of what the grasshopper
thinks or feels. We see and hear and know of him only
the ant sees and hears and knows.
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. It was
then that he noticed the grasshopper,
looking cold and pinched.
“Please, friend ant, may I have a
bite of your corn?” asked the
grasshopper.
Point of View
He looked the grasshopper up and
down. “What were you doing all last
summer?” he asked. He knew its kind.
“I sang from dawn till dark,”
replied the grasshopper.
“Well,” said the ant, hardly
bothering to conceal his contempt,
“since you sang all summer, you can
dance all winter.”
Point of View





Approximates more closely than the
omniscient the conditions of real life.
Narrator is a ready-made unifying element.
Additional device of characterization; actions
and motives reveal biases or limitations.
Limited field of observation.
Clumsy writers will have character listening
at keyholes, accidentally overhearing
important conversations, or coincidentally
being present when important events occur.
Point of View


Stream of consciousness
presents the apparently random
thoughts going through a
character’s head within a certain
period of time, mingling memory
and present experiences, and
employing transitional links that
are psychological rather than
strictly logical.
Variant of third-person
limited point of view
Point of View
Narrator disappears behind a
camera that can go
anywhere but can record
only what is seen and heard.
 It cannot comment,
interpret, or enter a
character’s mind.
 Also called the dramatic
point of view; reader is
placed in the position of
spectator at a movie or play

Point of View



Reader may see the character and
hear what they say, but they must
infer what they think or feel and
what they are like.
Purest example: story written
entirely in dialogue. As soon as
writers add their words of their own,
they begin to interpret through their
very choice of words.
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is
essentially objective in its narration.
Point of View

This version is told from the objective point of view
since we are nowhere taken into the thoughts and
feelings of the characters.
The ant tugged over the snow a
piece of corn he had store up last
summer, perspiring in spite of the
cold.
A grasshopper, his feelers
twitching and with a tic in his left
hind leg, looked on for some time.
Finally, he asked, “Please, friend and,
may I have a bite of your corn?”
Point of View
The ant looked the grasshopper
up and down. “What were you doing
all last summer?” he snapped.
“I sang from dawn till dark,”
replied the grasshopper, not
changing his tone.
“Well,” said the ant, and a faint
smile crept into his face, “since you
sang all summer, you can dance all
winter.”
Point of View
What the character thinks and feels
is seen from the outside; readers
draw their own inferences.
 Relies heavily on external action
and dialogue.
 Offers no opportunities for direct
interpretation by the author; little
comment, a minimum of
editorializing, judging, or preaching.
 Example: Hemingway’s “Hills Like
White Elephants”

Point of View
For readers, the examination of point of view
may be important both for understanding and
for evaluating the story.
1) Are the events being interpreted by a
narrator or by one of the characters?
2) Has the writer chosen the point of view for
maximum revelation of the material or for
another reason?
3) Is the author deliberately misleading
readers by presenting events through a
character who is falsely interpreting them?
Examining Point of View
4) Has the author used the selected point of
view fairly and consistently?
5) Is the writer consistent in their use of point
of view?
6) If the point of view shifts, does it shift for a
just artistic reason?
Serious literary writers choose and use point
of view so as to yield ultimately the greatest
possible insight, either in fullness or in
intensity.
Examining Point of View