Determining Point of View
Point of view is the relationship of the narrator to the story.
Point of View / How You Can Tellfirst-person / One character tells what he or she see, hears, and thinks.
The words I, me and my are part of the narration.
third-person limited / Readers see events through the eyes of one character who is not the narrator. The character is referred to as he or she. The reader is aware of one character’s thoughts and feelings.
third-person omniscient / Readers see events through the eyes of several characters.
Several characters share their thoughts and feelings.
Directions: Read each of the following passages.
Answer the questions that follow.
1. Harry said nothing; he was thinking too hard. Narcissus Malfoy would not have let
her precious son out of her sight willingly; Malfoy must have made a real effort to
free himself from her clutches. Harry, knowing and loathing Malfoy, was sure the
reason could not be innocent.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
A. What is the point of view?
B. How do you know?
2. When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house,
I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. I was wishing I
looked like Paul Newman – he looks tough and I don’t – but I guess my own looks
aren’t so bad.
S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders
A. What is the point of view?
B. How do you know?
3. Buck remembered the man in the red sweater, and retreated slowly...
After some time of this, Francois threw down the club, thinking that Buck feared a
thrashing.
Jack London, Call of the Wild
A. What is the point of view?
B. How do you know?
4. He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone
eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been
with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that
the old man was definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky,
and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish
the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his
skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled line or the
gaff or the harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast.
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
A. What is the point of view?
B. How do you know?
5. I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this
isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says.
Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
A. What is the point of view?
B. How do you know?
6. Andrew had expected London to be large. He had not expected it to be
frightening. But as the green fields gave way to seemingly endless rows of small,
mean houses he began to feel uneasy. And when the train, moving more slowly,
entered the dim vastness of the station and even the sky disappeared, his
uneasiness increased.
Robert Newman, The Case of the Baker Street Irregular
A. What is the point of view
B. How do you know?