Point of View: It’s Personal

The point of view of a story determines who is telling it and the narrator’s relationship to the characters in the story. In the first person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story told from their point of view. From a third-person point of view, the narrator is not part of the story and the characters never acknowledge the narrator’s presence. Less common than the first and third are the second person views. From a second person point of view, the reader is part of the story. The narrator describes the reader’s actions, thoughts, and context using “you”.

public binoculars

It’s all about how you look at it.

When you tell a story, the important thing to choose is the point of view the story should take. The point of view determines who is the narrator, as well as the narrator’s relationship with the characters in the story. A story can have many different feelings depending on the narrator.

The main points of view are first person and third person, with the second being less frequent but still common enough for it to be studied in writing classes. These are also terms used to distinguish them from personal pronouns. Great name I And we is a first person pronoun; they refer to themselves. Pronouns Friend, used for both singular and plural antecedents, is the second person pronoun, the person addressed. Third person personal pronoun—He, she, It, Surname—referring to someone or something being mentioned other than the speaker or the person addressed. Narratives are often identified as first, second, or third person based on the types of pronouns they use.

First person perspective

In first person narrative, the narrator is a person in the story, telling the story from their own point of view. Reported sentences often use the pronoun I (or we, if the narrator is speaking as part of a group). The narrator may be in the middle of the action or more than just a character observing the action from outside limits, but in either case you are told what happens by that character.

It also means that impressions and descriptions are embellished by the character’s opinions, moods, past experiences, or even their distorted perception of what they see and hear. .

Inability to go for a walk that day. Indeed, we had wandered in the leafless bush for an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there were no guests, had dinner early), the cold winter wind had brought very overcast clouds and a penetrating rain, so it was now impossible to exercise outdoors. again.

I’m glad for that: I’ve never enjoyed hiking, especially on chilly afternoons: for me, it’s scary to come home to a blazing sunset, with fingers and toes amputated leg, and heart grieved by Nurse Bessie’s reprimands, and condescension. by my sense of physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed. – Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre1847

IN Jane Eyre, the narration is provided by the story’s title character, a female tutor. The information shared comes from her memories and impressions—about the weather, her knowledge of Mrs. Reed’s eating habits, and her fear of receiving a lecture from Y. Colonel Bessie. We are also protected from information that Jane does not know.

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Many classic works of fiction feature characters remembered in their first-person voices: Catching children in green fields (Holden Caulfield), The Handmaid’s Tale (Offred), or To Kill a Mockingbird (Reconnaissance Finch). In some stories, such as in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The great GatsbyThe narrator in the first person (Nick Carraway) is the observer of the central character (Jay Gatsby).

Second people

Second person narration is a rarely used narrative technique in which the action is controlled by a character assigned to the reader, a character called Friend. The reader is immersed in the story as a character participating in the story. The narrator describes what “you” do and lets you think and context on your own. The most famous work of fiction using second person narration is probably the novel by Jay McInerney Bright Lights, Big City.

At the subway station, you wait fifteen minutes on the platform to catch the train. Finally, a local, tired of graffiti, trudged into the station. You take a seat and hang a New York Post. Posting is the most embarrassing of your addictions. —Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City1984

You’ll also find second-person narration used in the “Choose Your Own Adventure” style of books popular with younger readers, in which readers determine where the story will take them to turn. to the next page. Allowing the reader to “become” the central character in the story provides an immersive reading experience that elevates what is at stake for the character and the reader.

Third person point of view

In third person narration, the narrator exists outside of the events of the story and relates the actions of the characters by mentioning their names or by the third person pronouns he, she or she. Surname.

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Third-person narratives can be classified into several categories: omniscient, limited, and objective.

The third person is omniscient

omniscient means “know-it-all” and likewise, an omniscient narrator knows a character’s thoughts, feelings, and motives even if the character doesn’t reveal any of them to other characters.

Little woman by Louisa May Alcott is a good example of a third person omniscient narrative:

“Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

“It’s scary to be poor!” Meg sighed, looking down at her old dress.

“I don’t think it’s fair that some girls have a lot of pretty things, and other girls have nothing,” added little Amy with a wounded snort.

“We have Mom and Dad and we have each other,” Beth said with satisfaction from her corner.

The four children’s faces were lit up by the firelight at the cheerful words, but darkened when Jo said sadly, “We have no father, and will be without him for a long time.” Mother did not say “probably never,” but each of them added silently, thinking of their Father far away, at war. — Louisa May Alcott, Little woman1868

The story is not told from the point of view of Meg, Jo, Beth or Amy, but from the perspective of someone watching the four sisters as they talk to each other. Therefore, each character is referred to by their name or third person pronoun she. The narrator does not exist as a character in the story and the girls do not acknowledge the narrator’s presence.

However, narrators are omniscient, which means they know what the characters are thinking. This is shown in the last line of the excerpt, when the girls quietly think about their father who never returned from the war.

Third Person Company Limited

In limited third-person narration, the narrator still exists outside of the events of the story, but does not know the motives or thoughts of all the characters. Instead, a character is the driver of the story, and the reader is given a closer look at that character’s psyche than other characters.

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JK Rowling uses a limited third-person narrative in the Harry Potter novels. Although the narrator is not Harry, and Harry is referred to as ‘he’, the reader is allowed to enter Harry’s thoughts – which he wonders without speaking out loud. We, like Harry, are unsure of what the other characters are thinking:

Three days later, the Dursleys showed no sign of stopping, and Harry could find no way out of his predicament. He lay on his bed watching the sun go down behind the bars of the window and wondered painfully what was about to happen to him.

What’s the use of kicking himself out of his room if Hogwarts is going to banish him for doing it? However, life on Privet Drive has reached an all-time low. Now that the Dursleys know they won’t wake up like fruit bats, he’s lost his only weapon. Dobby may have saved Harry from the terrible events at Hogwarts, but the way things are going, he could have starved to death either way. — JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets1999

Third person goals

In third person objective narration, the narrator narrates events that take place without knowing the motives or thoughts of any of the characters. We know very little about what motivates them until we hear them speak or observe their actions. The resulting tone is often factual, not colored by any opinion or commentary, nor by knowledge of what goes on outside of the scene.

The villagers began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, at about ten o’clock; In some towns there were so many people that the draw lasted two days and had to begin on June 25. But in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole draw took place in less than two hours, so it could start at ten in the morning and still have time for the villagers to go home by noon. . dinner. — Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery,” 1948

Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn

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