Narrative Perspective

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Narrative Perspective

• Authors Point of View

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Dialogue and Narration

• Dialogue when characters speak.
• Narration when the narrator speaks.
• Quotation marks separate narration from
  dialogue.
• Example
• Help my cousin Jack said.
• 1
  2

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Identifying Narrative Perspective

• It's about the narrator (who tells the story)
• We're not looking at dialogue.
• We don't care what characters say.
• Only the narrator's voice matters.

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Pronoun Case
We are trying to figure out the narrator's view
point on the story. Perspectives and Signal Words
First-Person I, me, my, mine, we, us, ours,
Second-Person you, your
Third-Person he, she, her, they, them (also character's names)
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Secret

• I am in the room
• I 1st Person
• You come in the room.
• You 2nd Person
• Then he or she came in the room.
• He or She 3rd Person

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First-Person

• Narrator is a part of the story (character).
• Often uses I or we.
• Example
• I went home. Tim came over. I couldn't play.

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First-Person

• the narrator is usually the protagonist or
  central character in the story.  But even if this
  character is not the protagonist, he or she is
  directly involved in the events of the story and
  is telling the tale first hand.
• the narrator will be telling the story from
  Is perspective.  Readers should watch for the
  narrators use of first-person pronouns- I, me,
  my, our, us, we, myself, and ourselves, as these
  will usually indicate that the passage is
  narrated from first-person perspective.  
• Remember, one must ignore the dialogue of
  characters (indicated by quotation marks) and
  focus on narration!

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Second-Person

• Usually for instructions
• Uses You from your perspective.
• Examples
• First, gather your materials. Add 1 cup sugar to
  flour.

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Second-Person

• In this mode narration you are the agent,such
  as in this example you walked down the stairs.
   As it is generally awkward for a story to be
  narrated from your perspective, this mode of
  narration is not used very often in narratives
  and stories.  There are some exceptions, however,
  and second-person perspective is the primary mode
  of narration for choose your own adventure books
  and similarly styled writings.
•  Most directions and instructions are usually
  narrated from second-person perspective.  In most
  cases, directions will be written in short
  sentences, where the implied subject is you.
   But even when you is not explicitly stated, it
  is understood that you are the subject of
  directions and instructions.

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Third-Person

• Narrator usually isnt involved.
• Tells other's stories.
• Lots of He, She, character names.
• Three Types of Third-Person Narration
• Does the narrator tell
• Thoughts and Feelings of Characters?

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Third-Person

• The narrator may be far removed from or not
  involved in the story, or he or she may be a
  supporting character supplying narration for a
  hero.  
• Uses he, she, them, they, him, her, his, her,
  and their by the narrator show that a passage is
  narrated from third-person perspective.  There
  are three distinct modes of third-person
  narration objective, limited, and omniscient.
• Which mode the narrator is using is determined by
  how much the narrator explains the thoughts,
  feelings, and internal thoughts of the characters
  and shares them with the reader through
  narration.  Characters feelings and motivations
  can be inferred and understood through their
  behavior and dialogue in each of the three modes
  of third-person narration however, readers
  should be concerned with finding instances where
  the narrator explicitly reveals a characters
  thoughts or feelings.

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Third-Person Omniscient

• Narrator is all knowing.
• Narrator tells thoughts and feelings of more than
  one character.
• Omni All Scient Knowing
• Example
• Tim was mad at Shay. He blamed her. Shay knew
  Tim would be mad, but she wanted to live her life.

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Omniscient

• In this mode of narration, the narrator gives
  readers the most access to characters thoughts
  and feelings.  With third-person omniscient
  narration, the narration will reveal more than
  one characters  internal feelings.
• The base word omni means all, and scient means
  knowing, so omniscient translates to all
  knowing.   In omniscient narration, the narraor
  is all knowing.

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Third-Person Limited

• Narrator is limited to one character.
• Tells thoughts feelings of one character
• Example
• Tim was mad at Shay. He blamed her. Shay just
  left without saying anything. She left a note
  and then left him.

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Limited

• When a narrator uses third-person limited
  perspective, the narrators perspective is
  limited to the internal thoughts of one
  character.  In other words, the narrator reveals
  the thoughts and feelings of one character
  through explicit narration. As with objective
  narration, readers may be able to infer
  characters thoughts and feelings based on the
  behaviors and dialogue of those characters, which
  are narrated, but the narrator also directly
  reveals the central characters internal
  perspective.

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Third-Person Objective

• Narrator does not reveal any characters thoughts
  or feelings.
• Only characters dialogue and actions are
  narrated.
• Example
• Tim slammed the door. He walked upstairs read
  a note from Shay. He kicked her trash can
  started crying.

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Objective

• In this mode of narration, the narrator tells a
  third-persons story (he, she, him, her), but the
  narrator only describes characters behavior and
  dialogue.  The narrator does not reveal any
  characters thoughts or feelings. Again, readers
  will be able to understand characters thoughts
  and motivations based on characters actions and
  dialogue, which are narrated however, the
  narrator will not explicitly reveal characters
  thoughts and/or motivations in narration.

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Tips on Identifying

• Check 1st or 2nd-person before worrying about
  objective, limited, or omniscient.
• Ask, Whos story is the narrator telling his,
  mine, or someone elses?
• Focus on narration not dialogue.

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Practice

1. Read the following passages.
2. Determine the narrators perspective.
3. Write down your answer.

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1

• When I was four months old, my mother died
  suddenly and my father was left to look after me
  all by himself I had no brothers or sisters. So
  through boyhood, from the age of four months
  onward, there was just us two, my father and me.
  We lived in an old gypsy caravan behind a filling
  station

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2

• Foresight in Relationships
• The previous night, make your plans for the
  next day and write them down If you attend an
  exclusive Samurais party and feel timid, you
  cannot do your part in making it a successful
  party. You had first better prepare by
  convincing yourself that you will have a grand
  time. And you should feel grateful for the
  invitation.

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3

• Harold Davis took a deep breath and slowly
  started to peel the gauze from the wound on his
  grandmothers leg. Hold on, Grandma. Im
  almost done, He said quietly. Dont worry,
  baby. It doesnt hurt too much, she quietly
  replied. Just take your time. Harold glanced
  up at his grandmother lying on the couch. He
  could tell she was in pain from the way she
  gripped the cushions, but still she managed to
  smile back at him.

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4.

• They were standing under a tree, each with an
  arm round the other's neck, and Alice knew which
  was which in a moment, because one of them had
  "DUM" embroidered on his collar, and the other
  "DEE." "I suppose they've each got "TWEEDLE"
  round at the back of the collar," she said to
  herself. They stood so still that she quite
  forgot they were alive, and she was just looking
  round to see if the word "TWEEDLE" was written at
  the back of each collar, when she was startled by
  a voice coming from the one marked "DUM."

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5.

• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
• At dawn, Mae Tuck set out on her horse for the
  wood at the edge of the village of Treegap. She
  was going there, as she did once every ten years,
  to meet her two sons, Miles and Jesse, and she
  was feeling at ease. At noon time, Winnie
  Foster, whose family owned the Treegap wood, lost
  her patience at last and decided to think about
  running away.