LITERARY POINT OF VIEW
First and Third Person Narrators (part 1)
Point of View is a way of saying how a story is being told. A story is a narrative. Every narrative has a narrator, which is the person who is telling the story. Point of View tells you the position of the narrator as it relates to the story.
What are the different types of narrators?
There are two different types of narrator. There is a First Person Point of View. This means that the narrator is one of the characters in the story, usually the main character. You can tell First Person Point of View by the pronouns that the narrator uses. Does the narrator say things like "I said/did," "WE said/did," "this happened to US?" If so, this is a First Person narrator because the narrator is one of the characters in the story.
There is also a Third Person Point of View. This is when the narrator is NOT a character in the story. The narrator is some unknown person who is able to tell you a story about others. Once again, watch the pronouns that the narrator uses to see if it's really Third Person Point of View. If the narrator says things like "HE said/did," "SHE said/did." "THEY said/did," or "this happened to THEM," then you know it's a Third Person narrator.
Let's look at an example...
Read the following paragraph. It is an example of a Third Person point of view.
It was already close to midnight, and Mr. Hawkins had to get up at six in the morning. Having finished doing everything he needed to do for the evening, he turned off the light and went back to his bedroom to go to sleep. He always turned on the television on his dresser when he went to bed. He was such a hard-working man, however, that every time his head touched the pillow, he would be asleep before he could watch anything. Tonight was no different.
Now read this paragraph. It's the same paragraph as the previous one, but it has been re-written in First Person point of view.
It was already close to midnight, and I had to get up at six in the morning. Having finished doing everything I needed to do for the evening, I turned off the light and went back to my bedroom to go to sleep. I always turned on the television on my dresser when I went to bed. But I was a hard-working man. Every time my head touched the pillow, I would be asleep before I could even watch anything. Tonight was no different.
Let me explain this example further
Did you notice how the narrator in the first paragraph was constantly referring to the main character as if he (the narrator) was just watching the story and wasn't really a part of it? Did you notice where he said "he needed to do," "he turned off the light," "he always turned on the television," and "he would be asleep?" These were all clues to let you know this was Third Person Point of View.
Did you notice all of the things that were changed in the second one? Now the narrator is actually the main character; he is telling the story. Now you read things like "I had to get up," "everything I needed to do," "I turned off," "I always turned on," and "I went to bed."
Read the next passage and decide the narrator's point of view. 
Prince just told him that he was so focused on sports, he didn't really have time for girls. He also said that he thought he was too young to be serious about any one girl. Mr. Hawkins didn't disagree with him, but he didn't believe him either. In the back of his mind, he constantly thought that losing his mother the way he did had a great deal to do with him not having a girlfriend.
...Now, if you really want to see if you understand what you're doing, rewrite this paragraph from the other point of view. |  |
