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Narrative Perspective & Point of View

All focuses on who tells the story, how they tell it, and how they and we, as readers, understand their roles in the narrative

Point of View

The position from which a narrator relates the events of a narrative

First Person

Uses first-person pronouns such as I and we. See the story through the lens of one character. Usually the main character, though, it could be a minor one too.

Second Person

Puts the reader directly into the story; rarely used, could be viewed as gimmicky because it makes the reading too literal. However, it can create intimacy

Third Person

Tells the story with third-person pronouns—he, she, and it. View all events from a distance.

Limited

Views all events from one person's perspective; good insight into how that character views the world

Omniscient

Views and knows events from the perspectives of multiple characters.

Objective

Most neutral and impartial. Does not follow a single character or enter one's perspective. Don't know what characters are thinking or feeling.

Stream of Consciousness

Narrative technique that takes readers inside the mind of a narrator, recounting thoughts, impressions, and feelings, from either a first person or a third-person limited omniscient perspective

  • Get a sense of what the narrator is thinking without filters, causalty, or logic
  • Often characterized by fragments, swift or absent transitions, and a free association of ideas
  • Generally going to see this in longer fiction because there is more room for the story and this type of technique

Layerd Points of View

Not every story has a straightforward first, second, or third-person point of view. It's often old through multiple layered perspectives.

  • Sometimes we have multiple narrators—different characters move plot forward, each picking up where the other left off.
  • Different characters relate the same events from their own perspectives, giving a more complicated and nuanced understanding of their meaning.

Narrative Frames

Establishes who is telling the main story and under what circumstances

  • Create a shift in perspective
  • Usually, a thematic link between the frame and the main narrative
  • If the frame story is told in first-person present tense, perhaps the main story will be told as a flashback or in third-person as something that happened to someone else
  • When a frame is used to pass on a secondhand story, the reader is left to wonder if the narrator is getting everything right, or if they are misremembering or embellishing a tale

Unreliable Narrators

Sometimes authors will tell teh perspective through a character who is naive, biased, mentally ill, corrupt, or simply just immoral

  • USe to create tension as readers try to determine what is true or fact and what is downright false or a matter of perspective
  • Unreliable narrators are often interesting, complex characters who may have an inherited bias or some blindspots that create a subjective viewpoint