What is Point of View?
An automobile accident occurs. Two drivers are involved. Witnesses include four sidewalk spectators, a policeman, a man with a video camera who happened to be shooting the scene, and the pilot of a helicopter flying overhead. Here we have nine different points of view and, most likely, nine different descriptions of the accident.
In short fiction, who tells the story and how it is told are critical issues for an author to decide. The tone and feel of the story, and even its meaning, can change radically depending on who is telling it.
Remember, someone is always between the reader and the action of the story. That someone is telling the story from his or her own point of view. This angle of vision, the point of view from which the people, events, and details of a story are viewed, is important to consider when reading a story.
Types of Points of View
First Person - The story is told through the voice of one character. The character uses the pronoun "I" when narrating the story.
I bought a book on Shakespeare.
Second Person-The author speaks directly to the reader, “you should note dear reader...” as if in dialogue or conversation
Don’t you want to buy a book on Shakespeare?
Third Person Objective: The author uses “he” or “she” to refer to the character. The author states only what can be seen; NOT what’s in a character’s mind.
She bought a book on Shakespeare.
Third Person Limited - The story is seen through the eyes of one particular character. The narrator reveals only one character's inner thoughts and is not himself or herself a character in the story. The narrator uses the pronouns “he” or “she.”
As onlookers stood by, she bought a book on Shakespeare and thought about how impressed they must be with her intelligence and literary expertise.
Third Person Omniscient – “Like God.” The story is told by an all knowing narrator who supplies more information about all the characters and events than any one character could know. The narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all the characters.
As onlookers stood by, she bought a book on Shakespeare and thought about how impressed they must be with her intelligence and literary expertise, while many were just processing their feelings of rage and pity at such a desperate and obvious bid for attention.