Point of View

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Point of View
Feature Menu
What Is Point of View? Omniscient Point of
View Third-Person-Limited Point of
View First-Person Point of View Determining a
Storys Point of View Voice Tone Practice
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What Is Point of View?
Point of view is the vantage point from which a
writer narrates or tells a story.
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Omniscient Point of View
In the omniscient point of view, the all-knowing
narrator

• plays no part in the story

• knows and can tell what any character is thinking
  and feeling

• knows what is happening in all of the storys
  settings

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Omniscient Point of View
Quick Check
How can you tell that this excerpt is written
from the omniscient point of view?
The frown on the bachelors face was deepening
to a scowl. He was a hard, unsympathetic man, the
aunt decided in her mind. . . . The smaller girl
created a diversion by beginning to recite On
the Road to Mandalay. She only knew the first
line, but she put her limited knowledge to the
fullest possible use. . . . It seemed to the
bachelor as though someone had had a bet with her
that she could repeat the line aloud two thousand
times without stopping. from The Storyteller by
Saki
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Omniscient Point of View
Quick Check
How can you tell that this excerpt is written
from the omniscient point of view?
The frown on the bachelors face was deepening
to a scowl. He was a hard, unsympathetic man, the
aunt decided in her mind. . . . The smaller girl
created a diversion by beginning to recite On
the Road to Mandalay. She only knew the first
line, but she put her limited knowledge to the
fullest possible use. . . . It seemed to the
bachelor as though someone had had a bet with her
that she could repeat the line aloud two thousand
times without stopping. from The Storyteller by
Saki
The narrator knows the thoughts of all three
characters.
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Third-Person-Limited Point of View
In third-person-limited point of view, the
narrator

• plays no part in the story

• knows and can tell what a single character is
  thinking and feeling

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Third-Person-Limited Point of View
Quick Check
How can you tell that this excerpt is written
from the third-person-limited point of view?
So they parted and the young man pursued his
way until, being about to turn the corner by the
meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of
Faith still peeping after him with a melancholy
air, in spite of her pink ribbons. Poor little
Faith! thought he, for his heart smote him.
What a wretch am I to leave her on such an
errand! She talks of dreams, too. from Young
Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Third-Person-Limited Point of View
Quick Check
How can you tell that this excerpt is written
from the third-person-limited point of view?
So they parted and the young man pursued his
way until, being about to turn the corner by the
meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of
Faith still peeping after him with a melancholy
air, in spite of her pink ribbons. Poor little
Faith! thought he, for his heart smote him.
What a wretch am I to leave her on such an
errand! She talks of dreams, too. from Young
Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The narrator knows the thoughts of only one
character.
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First-Person Point of View
In first-person point of view, the narrator

• is a character in the story

• knows and can tell only what he or she thinks and
  feels

• may be reliable and trustworthy or an unreliable
  narrator

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First-Person Point of View
Quick Check
How can you tell that this excerpt is written
from the first-person point of view?
At three oclock I cried, Print off, and
turned to go, when there crept to my chair what
was left of a man. He was bent in a circle, his
head was sunk between his shoulders, and he moved
his feet one over the other like a bear. I could
hardly see whether he walked or crawled. . . .
Can you give me a drink? he whimpered. . . . I
went back to the office, the man followed with
groans of pain, and I turned up the lamp. Dont
you know me? he gasped. from The Man Who
Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
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First-Person Point of View
Quick Check
How can you tell that this excerpt is written
from the first-person point of view?
At three oclock I cried, Print off, and
turned to go, when there crept to my chair what
was left of a man. He was bent in a circle, his
head was sunk between his shoulders, and he moved
his feet one over the other like a bear. I could
hardly see whether he walked or crawled. . . .
Can you give me a drink? he whimpered. . . . I
went back to the office, the man followed with
groans of pain, and I turned up the lamp. Dont
you know me? he gasped. from The Man Who
Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
The narrator tells the experience as he witnesses
it.
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Determining a Storys Point of View
When you read fiction, ask the following five
questions about point of view
1. Who is telling the story?
2. How much does the narrator know and
understand?
3. How much does the narrator want me to know?
4. Can I trust the narrator?
5. How would the story be different if someone
else told it?
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Determining a Storys Point of View
Quick Check
Which excerpt is written from the first-person
point of view? Which is written from the
third-person-limited point of view?
They would hate him with cold and terrible
intensity, but it really didnt matter. He would
never see them, never know them. He would have
only the memories to remind him only the nights
of fear. . . . from The Cold Equations by Tom
Godwin
It is eight suns journey to the east and a man
passes by many Dead Places. The Forest People are
afraid of them but I am not. Once I made my fire
on the edge of a Dead Place at night. . . .
from By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen
Vincent Benét
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Determining a Storys Point of View
Quick Check
They would hate him with cold and terrible
intensity, but it really didnt matter. He would
never see them, never know them. He would have
only the memories to remind him only the nights
of fear. . . . from The Cold Equations by Tom
Godwin
Third-person limited
It is eight suns journey to the east and a man
passes by many Dead Places. The Forest People are
afraid of them but I am not. Once I made my fire
on the edge of a Dead Place at night. . . .
from By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen
Vincent Benét
First person
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Voice
A compelling narrator has a distinctive voice,
carefully crafted by the narrators

• use of language

• choice of words, or diction

• attitude, or tone

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Voice
Listen to the description of a injured man in the
voices of two narrators.
The mans doctor
The mans wife
My patient had clearly been through a painful
ordeal and required immediate surgery and
long-term therapy to restore the full use of his
injured arms, legs, and back.
I fought back tears, trying to be brave for him,
but the sight of my strong, tall husband so
terribly injured and so weak was almost too much
to bear. At last I gave way to grief.
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Tone
Tone is the attitude a narrator takes toward a
subject, another character, or the reader.
The narrators tone may be optimistic, sad,
curious, irritable, astonished, bitter, and so on.
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Practice
Take a story youve read
recently, and do the following exercises

• Imagine the story as told from a different point
  of view, and write the opening paragraphs.

• Explain how changing the point of view affects
  the story.

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The End
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First-Person Point of View
Unreliable Narrators Unreliable narrators mislead
or misinform readers. They may

• have reasons to tell only part of the truth or to
  lie to readers

• have a mental condition, such as memory loss,
  that causes mistakes in the narration

• be someone who has incomplete knowledge, such as
  a young child