(Week 1) Literary Elements:

Narrator and Point of View

WHO IS TELLING THE STORY?

A story is told through the eyes and mouth of a certain character or speaker- the narrator. It is the VOICE of the story. The narrators perspective is the way he or she sees things.

Narrator
A first-person narrator is one who tells a story and participates in its action. A third-person narrator is one who stands outside the action and speaks about it.

Point of View
Point of view is the perspective or vantage point, from which a story is told. It is either a narrator outside the story or a character in the story.

First-person point of view

First-person point of view is told by a character who uses the first-person pronouns like I or me and usually is in much, if not all, of the action in the story.

The narrator is a character in the story. The character/protagonist must experience everything with his/her senses or be told about something. As the reader, you experience the story only from what that character knows, thinks, and feels.

First-person point of view

EXAMPLE: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is told from the point of view of Scout, a young child. She doesn't grasp the complex racial and socioeconomic relations of her town but the reader does, because Scout gives information that the reader can interpret. Also, Scout's innocence reminds the reader of a simple, "it'snot-fair" attitude that contrasts with the rationalizations of other characters.

Third-person point of view

In the third-person point of view, the story is told by a narrator who is not a character in the story and uses he or she to refer to the characters. There is no I telling the story. There are two kinds of third-person point of view: 1. Limited 2. Omniscient

Note: The writer may choose to use limited or omniscient point of view either throughout the entire work or in a specific section.

Third-person point of view

EXAMPLE: In Virginia Woolf's wonderful novel Mrs. Dalloway, you're in one character's mind at a time. You know the title character's thoughts about Peter, the great love of her youth, for example, and then a few pages later, you hear Peter's thoughts about Mrs. Dalloway. Fascinating! When you're reading a third-person selection, either limited or omniscient, you're watching the story unfold as an outsider. Remember that most writers choose this point of view.

Third-person limited
In stories told from the limited third-person point of view, the narrator relates the inner thoughts and feelings of only one character, and everything is viewed from this characters perspective.

Third-person omniscient
In stories told from the omniscient thirdperson point of view, the narrator knows and may tell about what each character feels and thinks.

Second-person point of view

In second-person point of view, the story is told to readers using the pronoun you. It is rarely used in literature. It is when the author directly speaks to the reader. An example would be a how to book in which the writer refers to the audience as you.