Name: ______Date: ______Class Period: ______
POINT of VIEW
Who is telling the story? What can the narrator see? What does the narrator know? Every piece of fiction or non-fiction has a specific Point of View and the writer chooses this point of view to help convey his or her theme.
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First Person POV: The narrator is a character in the story who can reveal only personal thoughts and feelings. Any thoughts, feelings, or actions happening outside of the narrator’s personal experience must be told to the narrator by another character in the story. Uses the pronouns I, my, me, our, us, we etc.
Example: As I walked up the hill, I realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the cardinal who was nearly always singing from the top of the maple tree. I thought I saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when I looked again it was gone. Still, I shuddered as I felt a silent threat pass over me like a cloud over the sun.
Benefits:
· Readers can easily see themselves in the action and share the experience with the narrator. This creates a connection between reader and narrator that is not found in any other POV.
· It can open up some interesting plot possibilities as the narrow viewpoint can hint at things that aren’t what they seem, allowing for plot twists later on.
Weaknesses:
· Limited access to thoughts, feelings, and actions other than in the narrator’s experience.
· Bias; one-sided viewpoint
Associated words: personal, intimate, camaraderie, bond, connection, sympathy
Second Person POV: the narrator speaks directly to the reader or audience. Second person is not common and is found most often in directive or instructional non-fiction. Uses the pronouns you, your, yours
Example: As you walk up the hill, you realize that the atmosphere's just too quiet. There's no sound from the cardinal you know is almost always singing from the top of the maple tree. You think you see a shadow move high up on the slope, but when you look again it's gone. You shudder as you feel a silent threat pass over you. You feel cold, like a cloud just passed over the sun.
Benefits:
· Readers have direct access to the message being sent by the narrator. No one stands between the information and the audience.
Weaknesses:
· Demanding tone; may sound condescending
Associated words: direct
Third Person POV: the voice of the narrator does not belong to any specific character. The narrator is outside of the action and is telling about the characters. Uses the pronouns he, she, it, they, his, her etc.
Limited: the narrator is not a character in the story or a part of the action. The narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of a single character.
Example: As she walked up the hill, she realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the cardinal who she so often heard singing from the top of the maple tree. She thought she saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when she looked again it was gone. Nevertheless, she shuddered as she felt a silent threat pass over her. It felt like a cloud creeping over the sun.
Benefits:
· Readers receive a more objective view of the action, relationships, and characters.
Omniscient: the narrator is not a character in the story or a part of the action. The narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters.
Example: As she walked up the hill, she realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the cardinal who she so often heard singing from the top of the maple tree. She thought she saw a shadow move high up on the slop, and she saw a young boy. The boy’s feeling of curiosity allowed him to creep closer and closer despite his initial feels of fear.
Benefits:
· Readers gain a better understanding of the thoughts and feelings of all characters.
· Readers have access to everything in the story; they are not limited to one character’s view.
Weaknesses of third person POV:
· Reader has less personal attachment to characters.
Associated words: objective, unbiased, distant, impartial, neutral
Let’s Practice!
1. Myop carried a short, knobby stick. She struck out at random at chickens she liked, and worked out the beat of a song on the fence around the pigpen. She felt light and good in the warm sun. She was ten, and nothing existed for her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment.
What is the point of view?
What is the benefit of reading from this point of view?
What is the disadvantage of reading from this point of view?
2. For such reasons I was very glad when ten o’clock came and we started for Miss Havisham’s; though I was not at all at my ease regarding the manner in which I should acquit myself under that lady’s roof. Within a quarter of an hour we came to Miss Havisham’s house, which was of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred. There was a court-yard in front, and that was barred; so, we had to wait, after ringing the bell, until some one should come to open it. While we waited at the gate, I peeped in and saw that at the side of the house there was a large brewery. No brewing was going on in it, and none seemed to have gone on for a long, long time.
What is the point of view?
What is the benefit of reading from this point of view?
What is the disadvantage of reading from this point of view?
3. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.
What is the point of view?
What is the benefit of reading from this point of view?
What is the disadvantage of reading from this point of view?
Snow
From the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
Our first year in New York we rented a small apartment with a Catholic school nearby, taught by the Sisters of Charity, hefty women in long black gowns and bonnets that made them look peculiar, like dolls in mourning. I liked them a lot, especially my grandmotherly fourth-grade teacher, Sister Zoe. I had a lovely name, she said, and she had me teach the whole class how to pronounce it. Yo-landa. As the only immigrant in my class, I was put in a special seat in the first row by the window, apart from the other children, so that Sister Zoe could tutor me without disturbing them. Slowly, she enunciated the new words I was to repeat: laundromat, cornflakes, subway, snow.
Soon I picked up enough English to understand holocaust was in the air. Sister Zoe explained to a wide-eyed classroom what was happening in Cuba. Russian missiles were being assembled, trained supposedly on New York City. President Kennedy, looking worried too, was on the television at home, explaining we might have to go to war against the Communists. At school, we had air-raid drills: An ominous bell would go off and we’d file into the hall, fall to the floor, cover our heads with our coats, and imagine our hair falling out, the bones in our arms going soft. At home, Mami and my sisters and I said a rosary for world peace. I heard new vocabulary: nuclear bomb, radioactive fallout, bomb shelter. Sister Zoe explained how it would happen. She drew a picture of a mushroom on the blackboard and dotted a flurry of chalk marks for the dusty fallout that would kill us all.
The months grew cold, November, December. It was dark when I got up in the morning, frosty when I followed my breath to school. One morning, as I sat at my desk daydreaming out the window, I saw dots in the air like the ones Sister Zoe had drawn—random at first, then lots and lots. I shrieked, “Bomb! Bomb!” Sister Zoe jerked around, her full black skirt ballooning as she hurried to my side. A few girls began to cry.
But then Sister Zoe’s shocked look faded. “Why, Yolanda dear, that’s snow!” She laughed. “Snow.”
“Snow,” I repeated. I looked out the window warily. All my life I had heard about the white crystals that fell out of American skies in the winter. From my desk I watched the fine powder dust the sidewalk and parked cars below. Each flake was different, Sister Zoe had said, like a person, irreplaceable and beautiful.
· What is the point of view?
· What is the benefit of writing from this point of view?
· What is the disadvantage?
“Snow” was written from Yolanda’s perspective, how would it have changed if another character had been the storyteller? You tell me…
Pretend you are either…
OR OR
…and rewrite the story. Focus on the very end of the story when Yolanda sees the snow and yells out. How would each of these characters describe those events?
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