G.S. LAKIE MIDDLE SCHOOL HARRISON BERGERON: NARRATION GRADE EIGHT LANGUAGE ARTS POINT OF VIEW The type of personal or non-­‐personal perspective through which a story is communicated. POINT OF VIEW #1: FIRST PERSON When a character narrates the story with I-­‐me-­‐my-­‐mine in his or her speech. The advantage of this point of view is that you get to hear the thoughts of the narrator and see the world depicted in the story through his or her eyes. However, remember that no narrator, like no human being, has complete self-­‐knowledge or, for that matter, complete knowledge of anything. Therefore, the reader's role is to go beyond what the narrator says. EXAMPLE I could picture it. I have a habit of imagining the conversations between my friends. We went out to the Cafe Napolitain to have an aperitif and watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard. — Ernest Hemingway as the protagonist Jake Barnes, The Sun Also Rises POINT OF VIEW #2: SECOND PERSON
When the author uses you and your, is rare; authors seldom speak directly to the reader. When you encounter this point of view, pay attention. Why? The author has made a daring choice, probably with a specific purpose in mind. Most times, second-­‐person point of view draws the reader into the story, almost making the reader a participant in the action. EXAMPLE You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might become clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder. Then again, it might not. A small voice inside you insists that this epidemic lack of clarity is a result of too much of that already. — Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City POINT OF VIEW #3: THIRD PERSON OBJECTIVE
The author narrates the story as if he is a mere spectator of events. Objective point of view contains no references to thoughts or feelings; it only reports what can be seen and heard. One way to imagine this POV would be to think of the narrator as a roving movie camera. EXAMPLE “Hansel walked ahead of Gretel. Gretel dropped breadcrumbs behind her as she went. Ahead of them, an old witch waited.” — Hansel and Gretel POINT OF VIEW #4: THIRD PERSON LIMITED OMNISCIENT
This is similar to omniscient, except the writer can only access the thoughts and feelings of one character. The writer stays by the side of this character, so the story is limited to this one person’s experiences, and the narrator tells the story through this one character’s eyes and mind. By putting limitations on what the reader is able to know, suspense and mystery become much more available to the writer. Also, the narrator often takes on the attitudes of the point of view character, assuming that the character’s beliefs about the events of the story are true. This brings the focus in on this one select character and makes the story much more personal. EXAMPLE “Hansel walked ahead of Gretel. Gretel dropped breadcrumbs behind her as she went, knowing that her bumbling brother couldn’t be counted on to find his way home from the outhouse, let alone from the middle of the woods.” — Hansel and Gretel POINT OF VIEW #5: THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT
The narrator tells “his” or “her” story and reveals more than one character’s thoughts or feelings. It is the simplest means of telling a story, because the reader can know the thoughts of all the characters and therefore the writer can take the reader to any scene in the story and reveal as much – or as little – of the story as needed. Unlike third person limited or first person, the writer isn’t tied to what a single character sees or experiences. EXAMPLE “Hansel walked ahead of Gretel; after all, he knew he belonged in the front because Gretel was just a girl. Gretel dropped breadcrumbs behind her as she went, knowing that her bumbling brother couldn’t be counted on to find his way home from the outhouse, let alone from the middle of the woods. Ahead of them, an old witch waited, her stomach rumbling at the thought of what a delicious dinner the two plump children would make.” — Hansel and Gretel NARRATOR
A narrator is either a personal character or a non-­‐personal voice created by the author to deliver information to the audience about the plot and, often, other narrative information. The narrator may be a person devised by the author as an anonymous or stand-­‐alone entity; the author themselves; or a fictional or non-­‐fictional character within their own story. The narrator is considered participant if he/she is a character in the story, and non-­‐
participant if he/she is an implied character or an omniscient or semi-­‐omniscient being who merely relates the story to the reader. TYPES OF NARRATORS There are all kinds of narrators–going way beyond simple first or third person. Here’s a little study of the different types. #1: THE PROTAGONIST (FIRST PERSON)
Relatively straightforward, this is a story the hero narrates. He’ll narrate the same way he talks, but with more description and perhaps better grammar. The reader is privy to all his thoughts and opinions, which means we get to know the hero faster, and often relate to him more easily. EXAMPLE …I take up my pen in the year of grace 17–, and go back to the time when my father kept the “Admiral Benbow” inn, and the brown old seaman, with the saber cut, first took up his lodging under our roof. Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson #2: THE SECONDARY CHARACTER (FIRST PERSON)
Someone close to the protagonist, but not the main hero. The same things in the above type apply to this type, but the focus of the story moves away from the narrator. EXAMPLE “Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said Stamford, introducing us. “How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.” “How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment. “Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself. Watson in “A Study in Scarlet”, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle #3: THE DETACHED OBSERVER (THIRD PERSON)
A detached third person narrator sticks to telling the story, and never inserts his own opinions—never slips in an “I” or a “me” except in direct dialogue. You probably won’t notice voice at all. It’s fruitless to give an excerpt showing what a writer didn’t do, but Orwell’s 1984 is, again, a good example. #4: THE COMMENTATOR (THIRD PERSON)
This type never physically enters the story, but freely adds in their own amusing commentary. Allows voice without the complication of using an existing character. EXAMPLE The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a half-­‐recumbent attitude, found himself face-­‐to-­‐face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens #5: THE INTERVIEWER (THIRD PERSON)
This type has collected the details of the story after it happened, such as by interviewing the characters. This lends a sense of reality to the story. EXAMPLE It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound. Edmund and Eustace would never talk about it afterwards. Lucy could only say, “It would break your heart.” “Why,” said I, “was it so sad?” “Sad! No,” said Lucy. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis #6: THE SECRET CHARACTER (SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN)
Sometimes a narrator only pretends to removed from the story—they may refer to themselves in third person right up to the end, but will eventually be mentioned by some other character, or revealed to be a major character, even the villain, for an extra-­‐pleasing plot twist. EXAMPLE “Lemony?” Violet repeated. “They would have named me Lemony? Where did they get that idea?” “From someone who died, presumably,” Klaus said. The End, by Lemony Snicket #7: THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR (SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN)
Usually first person, but occasionally third, an unreliable narrator has a flawed point of view. That is, the writer intentionally made him biased, misinformed, insane, etc. Examples include Nelly in Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, or Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Here’s one from Poe. EXAMPLE “If still you think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse.” The Tell-­‐Tale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe NARRATIVE TIME
The grammatical positioning of a story in the past, present, or future #1: PAST TENSE The most common tense in literature and story-­‐telling; the events of the plot are depicted as occurring sometime before the current moment or the time at which the narrative was constructed or expressed to an audience. EXAMPLE "They drove happily. They had found their way and were preparing to celebrate." #2: PRESENT TENSE The events of the plot are depicted as occurring now—at the current moment—in real time. EXAMPLE "They drive happily. They find their way and now prepare to celebrate." #3: FUTURE TENSE Extremely rare in literature, this tense portrays the events of the plot as occurring some time in the future. Often, these upcoming events are described such that the narrator has foreknowledge (or supposed foreknowledge) of the future. Some future-­‐tense stories have a prophetic tone. EXAMPLE "They will drive happily. They will find their way and will prepare to celebrate."