Authors choose a point of view to tell their stories. For example, some stories are written from the perspective and voice of a character. These are known as first-person narratives. Some authors choose a governing, all-knowing voice to lead the reader through all aspects of the story. This is known as a third person, omniscient narrator—omniscient, because the narrator knows everything about the story.
There are several P.O.V. (point-of-view) techniques that authors use, but the four most common are:
In stories that use first person narration, the point of view is from the perspective of the narrator.
Pronouns like “I, me, and my” are clues that helps us identify a first person narration.
In stories that use third person, omniscient, perspective, the narrator has insights into all of the thoughts and feelings of the characters and communicates the full arc of the story.
Pronouns like “he, she, her, him, they, them,” are clues that help us identify a third person narration.
In a third person, limited narration, the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of one character’s perspective. Third person limited is a narrative perspective very similar to first person point of the view, because the reader has access to the thoughts and feelings of a main character.
Author Toni Morrison switches perspective throughout the novel Beloved, using narrative as one technique to take the reader deeper into the story of Sethe and her experiences on the Sweet Home Plantation.
As we continue to think about point of view, consider the questions below. At the end of this lesson, you will have a writing response exercise that will ask to you answer one of the two questions:
How might the difference between an "I" and a "he or she" in the narration of a story influence how we identify and respond to the text and the character?
How can fiction and poetry help readers understand and empathize with characters and stories that are based on real-life events?