POINT OF

VIEW
http://www.literarydevices.com/point-of-view/
POINT OF VIEW
is the perspective from which
a story is narrated.
The most common points of
view used in novels are first
person singular (“I”) and
third person (“he” and “she”).
POINT OF VIEW VS. NARRATOR
The narrator of a story can be a
participant in the story, meaning
this character is a part of the plot,
or a non-participant.
The point of view in a story refers
to the position of the narrator in
relation to the story.
For example, if the narrator
is a participant in the story,
it is more likely that the
point of view would be first
person, as the narrator is
witnessing and interacting
with the events and other
characters firsthand.
Ifthe narrator is a non-
participant, it is more likely that
the point of view would be in
third person, as the narrator is
at a remove from the events.
TYPES OF POINT OF VIEW
1. First Person Singular
 uses the “I” pronoun to refer to the
narrator.
 usually the protagonist of the story.
 allows the reader access to the
character’s inner thoughts and
reactions to the events occurring.
All of the action is processed
through the narrator’s
perspective, and therefore this
type of narrator may be
unreliable. The choice to write
from an unreliable first person
point of view gives the reader a
chance to figure out what is
reality and what is a creation on
the part of the narrator.
A NOTORIOUSLY UNRELIABLE NARRATOR IS
HUMBERT HUMBERT FROM VLADIMIR
NABAKOV’S LOLITA:
 When I try to analyze my own
cravings, motives, actions and so
forth, I surrender to a sort of
retrospective imagination which
feeds the analytic faculty with
boundless alternatives and which
causes each visualized route to fork
and re-fork without end in the
maddeningly complex prospect of my
past.
2. FIRST PERSON PLURAL
isextremely uncommon in
novels, as it uses “we” as the
primary pronoun.
This implies a group of
people narrating the story at
once.
To use this point of view
successfully, there must be a
sense of group identity, either
facing a similar challenge
together or placing themselves
in opposition to another
“outside” group.
FOR EXAMPLE, THE RECENT NOVEL THE BUDDHA
IN THE ATTIC BY JULIE OTSUKA IS ABOUT A
GROUP OF JAPANESE WOMEN WHO COME TO THE
UNITED STATES AS MAIL-ORDER BRIDES:

 Most of us on the boat were

accomplished, and were sure we would
make good wives. We knew how to cook
and sew. We knew how to serve tea and
arrange flowers and sit quietly on our
flat wide feet for hours, saying absolutely
nothing of substance at all.
3. SECOND PERSON
 using the “you” pronoun to narrate the
story.
 either implies that the narrator is
actually an “I” trying to separate himself
or herself from the events that he or she
is narrating, or allows the reader to
identify with the central character.
 This was popularized in the 1980s
series Choose Your Own Adventure, and
appears in the recent novel Pretty Little
Mistakes by Heather McElhatton:
EXAMPLE:

While standing in his parents

kitchen, you tell your boyfriend
you’re leaving. You’re not going
to college. You’re not buying into
the schedules, the credits, or
the points. No standardized
success for you.
THIRD PERSON

uses “he” and “she” as the

pronouns to refer to different
characters, and provides the
greatest amount of flexibility
for the author.
TWO MAIN POSSIBILITIES FOR THE THIRD
PERSON POINT OF VIEW

 Limited

-the reader is privy only to one main

character’s thoughts. In this way, it is
similar to the first person singular
point of view, since the focus stays
tightly on one character.
 Omniscient

- allows the author to delve into the

thoughts of any character, making the
narrator seem godlike.
THIS WAS A POPULAR POINT OF VIEW IN
19THCENTURY NOVELS. FOR EXAMPLE, THE
OPENING OF JANE AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND
PREJUDICE PRESENTS AN ALL-KNOWING
NARRATOR:

Itis a truth universally

acknowledged, that a single man in
possession of a good fortune, must
be in want of a wife.
ALTERNATING PERSON
 Some novels combine two or more of the above
types of point of view. For example, some novels
alternate between a first person singular point of
view in some chapters and the third person point
of view in other chapters. The Harry Potter series
alternates between third person limited—
allowing access to Harry’s thoughts—and third
person omniscient when information must be
shared that Harry is not witness to.
COMMON EXAMPLES OF POINT OF VIEW
 All of us experience life through a first person
singular point of view. When we tell stories from
our own lives, most of these stories are thus from
that perspective. However, we also sometimes
tell stories in the first person plural if a pair or
group of people is involved throughout the entire
story. We also tell many stories from the third
person point of view when talking about events
at which we were not present. Here are some
examples:
COMMON EXAMPLES OF POINT OF VIEW
 First person singular: “I had the craziest night
last night! I’ll tell you all about it.”
 First person plural: “New York was great. We
went to the Statue of Liberty, we walked around
Central Park, and we ate fantastic food. It’s our
favorite city.”
 Third person: “My grandfather was a pilot in
the war, and one time he survived a terrible
crash.”
SIGNIFICANCE OF POINT OF VIEW IN
LITERATURE
 The choice of the point of view from which to narrate
a story greatly affects both the reader’s experience of
the story and the type of information the author is
able to impart. First person creates a greater
intimacy between the reader and the story, while
third person allows the author to add much more
complexity to the plot and development of different
characters that one character wouldn’t be able to
perceive on his or her own. Therefore, point of view
has a great amount of significance in every piece of
literature. The relative popularities of different types
of point of view have changed over the centuries of
novel writing. For example, epistolary novels were
once quite common but have largely fallen out of
favor. First person point is view, meanwhile, is quite
common now whereas it was hardly used at all before
the 20th century.
EXAMPLES OF POINT OF VIEW IN
LITERATURE
 Example #1: First Person Singular
 There must have been about two minutes during
which I assumed that I was killed. And that too
was interesting—I mean it is interesting to know
what your thoughts would be at such a time. My
first thought, conventionally enough, was for my
wife. My second was a violent resentment at
having to leave this world which, when all is said
and done, suits me so well. I had time to feel this
very vividly.
 (Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell)
 George Orwell writes about his own experiences in the
Spanish Civil War in his book Homage to Catalonia. In
autobiographical works, the “I” narrator is the
character of the author. Here Orwell relates the
experience of getting shot and the thoughts that
passed through his mind directly thereafter.
EXAMPLE #2: FIRST PERSON PLURAL
 It didn’t matter in the end how old they had been,
or that they were girls, but only that we had
loved them, and that they hadn’t heard us
calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree
house, with our thinning hair and soft bellies,
calling them out of those rooms where they went
to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is
deeper than death, and where we will never find
the pieces to put them back together.
 (The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides)
 Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel The Virgin Suicides is
narrated by a collective “we”, who view and
comment on a group of five sisters. Eugenides
successfully uses this example of point of view by
making the “we” a group of boys who love and try
to understand the girls from afar.

EXAMPLE #3: SECOND PERSON
 You get home to your apartment on West 12th
Street. It’s a wreck. Like you. No kidding. You
wonder if Amanda will ever explain her
desertion. She was a model and she thought you
were rich. You never spotted she was an airhead.
So what does that make you?
 (Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerny)
 Jay McInerny’s novel Bright Lights, Big City, is
one of the few novels written for adults in the
second person point of view. This point of view
example creates a sense of intimacy between the
narrator and the reader, implicating the reader
in the events of the plot and relating the
powerlessness the narrator has to forestall his
own self-destruction.
EXAMPLE #4: THIRD PERSON
 The family of Dashwood had long been settled in
Sussex. Their estate was large, and their
residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of
their property, where, for many generations, they
had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage
the general good opinion of their surrounding
acquaintance.
 (Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen)
 The opening to Jane Austen’s Sense and
Sensibility introduces the Dashwood family, and
goes on to describe each character in detail. This
is another example of Jane Austen using the
third person omniscient point of view and gives
her access to all of the character’s thoughts,
desires, and motivations.
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF POINT OF
VIEW
1. What is the correct definition of
point of view as a literary device?
A. The opinion that someone takes on
in a debate.
B. The perspective from which a story
is narrated.
C. The way in which different people
see things.
2. CONSIDER THIS LINE FROM WILLIAM
FAULKNER’S AS I LAY DYING:

Darl Jewel and I come up

from the field, following the
path in single file. Although I
am fifteen feet ahead of him,
anyone watching us from the
cottonhouse can see Jewel’s
frayed and broken straw hat
a full head above my own.
In which point of view
is this excerpt?
A. First person singular
B. First person plural
C. Second Person
3. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS AN
EXAMPLE OF THIRD PERSON LIMITED?

A. Atticus was feeble: he was nearly

fifty. When Jem and I asked him why
he was so old, he said he got started
late, which we felt reflected upon his
abilities and manliness. (To Kill a
Mockingbird by Harper Lee)
B. On the boat we sometimes lay
awake for hours in the swaying
damp darkness of the hold, filled
with longing and dread, and
wondered how we would last
another three weeks. (The
Buddha in the Attic by Julie
Otsuka)
 C.Sordo passed the wine bottle back
and nodded his head in thanks. He
leaned forward and patted the dead
horse on the shoulder where the
muzzle of the automatic rifle had
burned the hide. He could still smell
the burnt hair. (For Whom the Bell
Tolls by Ernest Hemingway)
THE STORY IS TOLD BY AN OUTSIDE OBSERVER
ABOUT TOM AND HIS LIFE AND ADVENTURE.
The story is told all about Tom’s world.
THE NARRATOR AND THE READER ARE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND JUST
SOME OF THE MOTIVATIONS AND FEELINGS OF SOME OF THE
OTHER CHILDREN AND ADULTS IN THE STORY. MOST CHARACTERS
ARE JUST PROPS OF TIME’S LIFE.