Point of View

1. Point of View English Composition / 1302 Pages 127 …

2. Point of View Refers to • Speaker • Narrator • Persona • Voice Created by authors to • Tell stories • Make observations • Present arguments • Express personal attitudes and judgments

3. Point of View and Opinions Are not synonymous with each other. POV refers to • Work’s mode of narration • Comprising narrator • Language • Audience • Perceptions of events and characters

4. Opinions and beliefs are • Thoughts and ideas • May or may not have anything to do with a narration • Affect how people view reality • What they say about their perceptions of the world around them Opinions stem out of POV and have an effect on POV

5. Determining a Work’s Point of View First-Person Point of View • Narrator tells about events he or she has personally witnessed. • Uses the voice of “I” • May be named or unnamed. Speak as if they have acquired their knowledge • Firsthand experience • Have done • Said • Heard • Thought

6. First-Person POV Firsthand Witness • What they have observed others doing and saying Secondhand Witness • Observed others doing and saying Inferential Information • Able to infer or deuce from the information they have discovered. Conjectural, Imaginative, Intuitive Information • Conjecture about haw a character or characters might think and act, given their knowledge of a situation.

7. Reliable and Unreliable Determine the narrator’s • Position and ability • Prejudices or self-interest • Judgment of reader or listener • Reliable and authoritative Unreliable - they may have interests or limitations that lead them to • Mislead • Distort • Lie

8. Second-Person POV The narrator is speaking to someone else who is addressed as “you” • Least common the of POVs • Most difficult for authors to manage Offers two major possibilities • A narrator (1st person speaker) tells a listener what he or she has done and said at a past time. • Actions might be a subject to retelling of events • Actions might also be subject dispute and interpretation.

9. Third-Person Point of View The speaker emphasizes the actions and speeches of others • Described in 3rd Person (he, she, it, they) • Sometimes the speaker uses an “I,” which may seemingly be identical with the author The Authorial Voice • Within the voice of the narrator

10. Three variants of the 3rd Person POV Third Person Objective • Dramatic or Objective POV is the basic method of narration. • Renders action and speech that all the points of view share. • Narrator is unidentified speaker who reports things in an analogous way.

11. Dramatic POV continued … • The dramatic presentation is limited only to what is said and what happens. • The writer does not overtly draw conclusions or make interpretations • Dramatic POV is that readers can form their own interpretations. • The Lottery • A powerful example of Dramatic POV. • The POV or conclusions are stated.

12. 3rd Person POVOmniscient POV • Omniscient POV • All-knowing. • In real life this doesn’t happen. • Authors use the POV • Freely • Judiciously • Explaining • Thoughts • Feelings • Plans • Additional dimensions • Example The Necklace

13. 3rd PersonLimited Omniscient • Author concentrates on or limits the narration to the actions and thoughts of a major character • Examples • An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge • Miss Brill

14. Mingling POVs • To imitate realty • Sustain interest • Create suspense • Put the burden of response entirely on the readers. • Example: An Occurrence at Owl Creek • The major character

15. POV and Verb Tense • Refers to ways narrators and speakers perceive and report actions and speeches. • A Rendering of truth • Most narratives rely on the past tense • Introduction of dialogue, even in a past-tense narration, dramatically brings the story into the present. • Introduce present-tense commentary during narration.