Point of View

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW

• The point of view in a piece of literary work refers to the narrator’s position to the story being told.

FIRST PERSON

• The story is relayed by a narrator who is also a character within the story

• The narrator reveals the plot referring to this viewpoint character as “I” (or, when plural, “we”).

• Oftentimes, the first-person narrative is used as a way to directly convey the deeply internal, unspoken thoughts of the narrator

• Frequently the narrator’s story revolves around him/herself as the protagonist and allows this protagonist/narrator character’s inner thoughts to be conveyed openly to the audience, even if not to any of the other characters.

SECOND PERSON

• This is the most rare point of view in literature.

• The narrator refers to one of the characters as "you", therefore making the audience member feel as if he or she is a character within the story.

THIRD PERSON

• Third-person narration provides the greatest flexibility to the author and thus is the most commonly used narrative mode in literature.

• Each and every character is referred to by the narrator as "he", "she", "it”

• In third-person narrative, it is obvious that the narrator be merely an unspecified entity or uninvolved person that conveys the story, but not a character of any kind within the story being told