Point-of-View Lecture Notes

1. First-Person Perspectivestory narrated (told) by one of the characters

I looked toward the window, wanting to smash the panes out of it. I wanted to
throw something all the way to heaven and knock God clean off his throne. I picked up
one of the honey jars and hurled it as hard as I could I threw every last jar on the table,
until honey was spattered everywhere, flung like cake batter from electric beaters. I stood
in a gooey room full of broken glass, and I didn't care. My mother had left me. Who
cared about honey on the walls? (The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd 373)

Appeal: least psychic distance from story; personal connection w/ main character; allows
author to conceal information/mislead the reader

Drawbacks: 1st person narrator may not know/understand everything thats happening; does not
encourage complex characters/plots; shows story from one angle

2. Second-Person Perspectivenarrated as though you (the reader) are in the story

Youre so vain,
Ill bet you think this song is about you
Dont you?
(Youre so Vain, Carly Simon)

Appeal: no psychic distance; reader has direct, immediate connection to text

*used in songs, directions (cook books, manuals, etc.), ads, and speeches

Drawbacks: no character development

*Second-person often appears in a first- or third-person story for a few short lines; though hard
to keep up for a whole story, a few sentences here and there startle and engage the reader:

It is useless for me describe how terrible [the characters] felt in the time that followed. If
you have ever lost someone very important to you, then you already know how it feels,
and if you havent, you cannot possibly imagine it. (A Series of Unfortunate Events: The
Bad Beginning, Snicket 11)

Third-Person Perspective

Third-Person Perspective is the most universal, or most common, perspective. A third-

person narrator is not a character, but looks in at the story.

On the following day everyone knew that a flesh-and-blood angel was held
captive in Pelayos house when they went out into the courtyard with the first light of
dawn, they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with
the angel, without the slightest reverence, tossing him things to eat through the openings
 Point-of-View Lecture Notes

in the wire as if he werent a supernatural creature but a circus animal. (A Very Old Man
With Enormous Wings, Marquez 1071)

There are two forms of third-person recognized as main types: limited and omniscient.
These are based on how much information the narrator tells about characters in a story.

3. Third-Person Limited Perspectivelimited to the thoughts, feelings, and experiences

of one character

He thinks of the dust, blowing now through the gaps in the shutters, piling up
against the walls. It hurts him to imagine it: their house, empty, soundless, dust on the
chairs and tables, the garden plundered and grown over He hopes someone has
crammed the place with explosive and bombed it into splinters; he hopes the dust will
close over the roof and bury the house forever. (The Caretaker, Doerr 163)

Appeal: good balance between engaging the reader and explaining the text (recall showing and
telling); reliable narrator; handles complex plots well

Drawbacks: greater psychic distance; more removed from story

4. Third-Person Omniscient Perspectivenarrated by an omniscient (all-knowing) being;

therefore, expresses the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of any number of characters;
most objective perspective

The nuances of Paul's greeting were not lost on the Reverend Mother. She said:
"He's a cautious one, Jessica."
Jessica's hand went to Paul's shoulder, tightened there. For a heartbeat, fear pulsed
through her palm. Then she had herself under control. "Thus he has been taught, Your
Reverence."
What does she fear? Paul wondered. (Dune, Herbert 4)

Appeal: close connection to greatest number of characters; no information concealed from reader

Drawbacks: can be confusing; unfocused; hard to set down one mood, tone, or voice

Example of All Four Perspectives In One Paragraph!

*The paragraph as a whole would be Third-Person Omniscient; First, Second, and Third
Limited appear only in parts.

He gets in the car, turns on the ignition, and drives to the end of Mulligan Street,
thinking, I will never come this way again. Standing in the driveway, remembering their first
night together in that motel near Myrtle Beach, she mutters, Dont come back. Meanwhile, on
the other side of town, his new lover is watching American Idol and wondering if hell remember
to stop for burritos on his way over. (Creative Writing Four Genres in Brief, Starkey 134)