English/Schwartz

Point of View

Narrators can be…

·        First-person: The narrator is a participant in the action of the story; “I”

§  “I walked down the street and saw my friend Jasper.  He was walking his dog.  I thought his dog looked funny.”

·        Second-person: The action is told as if it were happening to “you.”

§  “You walked down the street and saw your friend Jasper.  He was walking his dog.  You thought his dog looked funny.”

·        Third-person: the action is told about others; “he/she”

o   Limited: The narration is limited to the view of one person.  This is like first-person but not actually told by the character; it is limited to what s/he sees, hears, thinks, etc.

§  “Zoë walked down the street and saw her friend Jasper.  He was walking his dog.  Zoë thought his dog looked funny.”

o   Omniscient: The narrator is like a god, who sees and knows all.  The narrator can tell us what everyone is doing and thinking, in different locations and times.

§  “Zoë walked down the street and saw her friend Jasper.  He was walking his dog.  Zoë thought his dog looked funny.  Jasper thought Zoë looked funny.  Jasper went home and read Hamlet.”

Narrators can also be…

·        Unreliable: A first-person narrator may not always tell the truth, or the whole truth.  S/he may explain things only as s/he sees them, and we have to figure out the “real” situation.

·        Varied: Some stories are told from multiple viewpoints, with different narrators speaking at different points in the story.