What Is Point of View?

Omniscient Point of View

Third-Person-Limited Point of View

First-Person Point of View

Determining a Story’s Point of View

Voice

Tone

Practice

Point of View

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Point of view is the vantage point from which a writer narrates or tells a story.

What Is Point of View?

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Omniscient Point of View

In the omniscient point of view, the all-knowing narrator

• knows and can tell what any character is thinking and feeling

• plays no part in the story

• knows what is happening in all of the story’s settings

How can you tell that this excerpt is written from the omniscient point of view?

Omniscient Point of View

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Quick CheckThe frown on the bachelor’s face was

deepening to a scowl. He was a hard, unsympathetic man, the aunt decided in her mind. . . .

The smaller girl created a diversion by beginning to recite “On the Road to Mandalay.” She only knew the first line, but she put her limited knowledge to the fullest possible use. . . . It seemed to the bachelor as though someone had had a bet with her that she could repeat the line aloud two thousand times without stopping.

from “The Storyteller” by Saki

Third-Person-Limited Point of View

In third-person-limited point of view, the narrator

• knows and can tell what a single character is thinking and feeling

• plays no part in the story

Third-Person-Limited Point of View

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Quick CheckSo they parted; and the young man

pursued his way until, being about to turn the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons.

“Poor little Faith!” thought he, for his heart smote him. “What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too.”

from “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

How can you tell that this excerpt is written from the third-person-limited point of view?

First-Person Point of View

In first-person point of view, the narrator

• knows and can tell only what he or she thinks and feels

• is a character in the story

• may be reliable and trustworthy or an unreliable narrator

First-Person Point of View

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Quick CheckAt three o’clock I cried, “Print off,” and

turned to go, when there crept to my chair what was left of a man. He was bent in a circle, his head was sunk between his shoulders, and he moved his feet one over the other like a bear. I could hardly see whether he walked or crawled. . . . “Can you give me a drink?” he whimpered. . . .

I went back to the office, the man followed with groans of pain, and I turned up the lamp.

“Don’t you know me?” he gasped.from “The Man Who Would Be King” by Rudyard Kipling

How can you tell that this excerpt is written from the first-person point of view?

Determining a Story’s Point of View

When you read fiction, ask the following five questions about point of view:

1. Who is telling the story?

3. How much does the narrator want me to know?

2. How much does the narrator know and understand?

4. Can I trust the narrator?

5. How would the story be different if someone else told it?

Determining a Story’s Point of View

It is eight suns’ journey to the east and a man passes by many Dead Places. The Forest People are afraid of them but I am not. Once I made my fire on the edge of a Dead Place at night. . . .

from “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét

Which excerpt is written from the first-person point of view? Which is written from the third-person-limited point of view?

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Quick Check They would hate him with cold and

terrible intensity, but it really didn’t matter. He would never see them, never know them. He would have only the memories to remind him; only the nights of fear. . . .

from “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin

Voice

A compelling narrator has a distinctive voice, carefully crafted by the narrator’s

• use of language

• choice of words, or diction

• attitude, or tone

Voice

Listen to the description of a injured man in the voices of two narrators.

My patient had clearly been through a painful ordeal and required immediate surgery and long-term therapy to restore the full use of his injured arms, legs, and back.

The man’s doctor: The man’s wife:

I fought back tears, trying to be brave for him, but the sight of my strong, tall husband so terribly injured and so weak was almost too much to bear. At last I gave way to grief.

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Tone is the attitude a narrator takes toward a subject, another character, or the reader.

Tone

The narrator’s tone may be optimistic, sad, curious, irritable, astonished, bitter, and so on.

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Take a story you’ve read recently, and do the following exercises:

Practice

• Explain how changing the point of view affects the story.

• Imagine the story as told from a different point of view, and write the opening paragraphs.

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