Point of view in fiction refers to the source and scope of the narrative voice.
Point of view refers to:
- “where an author chooses to stand in relation to his characters and action”
- “The angle from which a writer allows readers to view his characters and action”.
The Writer and The Narrator
Narrators are not the Writer. You must be able to differentiate between the writer and the narrator. They are two different things. The writer is a real, living, breathing person who invents or constructs or creates the narrator. The narrator can be also called the persona.
There are two main categories of points of view an author can adopt.
- First person and
- Third person.
First person narration can consist of major and minor characters' viewpoint.
It is important to remember that narrators are fictional constructs. That is, they are not real people.
First Person Point of View
In the first person point of view, that is, the author gives the role of narrator to a character in the story. This persona may be a non-participant in the main action, a minor character or a major character. Put simply, the story is told from the “I” perspective .
Third person Objective
The story is narrated as though the characters and action, as though it is viewed through a camera. The author shows what is seen and heard is revealed. This form of narration does not necessarily follow one character. The reader finds out only what the author chooses to reveal. As such, we can be manipulated to think certain things simply because we do not have access to all information. We are made to judge, as it were, on the basis of intentionally limited knowledge. This can be used by the author as a device for constructing elements of character, as well as for creating suspense.
Omniscient Points of View
Omniscient Narrator: Here we have a god-like view of the world; the narrator is all-seeing and all-knowing. They have unlimited access to the thoughts and feelings of many characters. The writer’s choice of narrative point of view has a powerful impact on the way readers see the world of the story—this technique is very powerful in positioning the reader.
1. Determine which of the two basic methods of narration is being used.
First person narration, where the narrator refers to self as I or we.
Third person narration, where the narrator does not use I or we, but instead talks about he, she, they, him, her, or them.
2. Once you have determined whether it is first person or third person narration [or sometimes a mixture of the two with the narration shifting from first to third and back again], ask yourself:
Limited Omniscient Narrator:
The limited omniscient narrative point of view has a similar impact to that of the first person point of view because the reader tends to see the world of the novel from one angle of vision or one centre of consciousness. A useful term to use when discussing the effect of the first person narrative point of view or the limited omniscient narrative point of view is that the character whose thoughts we have access to acts as the focalize for the story.
Why Point of View Is So Important
Why does point of view matter so much?
Because point of view filters everything in your story. Everything in your story must come from a point of view.
Which means if you get it wrong, your entire story is damaged.
Narrative Techniques
The following are the major techniques which authors may use to engage readers.
Character; Irony/ conflict; Point of view; Setting;
1.Character
Character may be revealed through CHADSBOATS:
- A = author; thee author may comment directly about this character; ("he was a mean and nasty piece of work..")
- D = dialogue or what the character says;
- S = says; what the character thinks of the world and other people is revealed in his or her dialogue;
- B = background; the character's context can tell us something about them, such as class attitudes;
- O = others; what other characters say or think about them;
- A = appearance; what some tells us what they are like as people;
- T= thinks; what are the his or her thoughts, feelings, doubts, fears, hopes.
- S= Setting; where we learn about a character from the setting in which they are found. More often EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE of a character is created via setting, where a stormy turbulent landscape may mirror that aspect of a characters mental landscape and how he / she may be feeling.
2. The conflict
This is an essential element in every short story. The conflict tells of some type of struggle:
Conflict may be internal or external. The tension created by this conflict gives rise to drama and action in the story. By identifying commonly experienced conflicts in a novel, we can identify THEME; ie how character/ s attempt to deal with and resolve major conflict in their lives is what the author wants us to consider.
i. Man (person or character) against man;
ii. Man against society;
iii. Man against his environment / nature;
iv. Man against himself. (This may be physical or psychological, but whatever it is, the conflict propels the story on to its final solution.)
3.Setting
The plot involves the ordering of the happenings; that is, selection and arrangements of incidents of the story into a recognizable sequence.
The setting involves the place and time of the incidents in the story. The location, the social environment, and period of history form an essential, element in the short story. Within this setting characters may move, initiating some action within the text. In addition the setting will construct some feeling in the reader in relation to place, character, time and action.
WHERE : place specific (classroom); place general (Ireland)
WHEN: time specific (midnight); time general or era (nineteenth century)
WHO ; the characters who may be introduced;
WHAT : some action may be established providing direction for th text to move in;
ATMOSPHERE : this is the mood or feeling created in the reader in relation to some aspect of setting.
EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE : Often the setting of a story acts as an emotional landscape. What this means is that the setting may mirror (or may directly contrast, to highlight) the main character's emotional state. As such the setting embodies feelings we the reader may attach to the character.
Thus, the setting can play an active part in the short story.
- It can time, place, character and action;
- it can mirror, establish or influence a character's emotions, ideas or actions;
- it can create a sense of mood and feeling (atmosphere). This atmosphere often plays a significant role in developing character, action and theme.
Plot
Plot are simple, linear, chronological sets of events. Indeed some stories are, however, there are many ways in which stories develop. How a story is developed and the order in which it proceeds, is its
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE.
Narrative structure is about two things:
1. the content of a story and
2. the form used to tell the story.
Two common ways to describe these two parts of narrative structure are story and plot.
Story refers to the raw materials of dramatic action as they might be described in chronological order.
Plot refers to how the story is told — the form of storytelling, or the structure, that the story follows. If we want to analyze narrative structure, we can use “who,” “what,” and “where” questions to look at the story or content of a movie. “How” and “when” questions are used to examine plot structure.
Conventionally, both story and plot are described in terms of how a character’s life is disrupted by an event or change in his/her situation; this causes a series of conflicts that the character(s) must face, including the major conflict that is eventually resolved at the end of the Film.
“Conflict” in this model can take many forms, be it emotional, interpersonal, or even between the character and his/her physical environment.
Conflict:
This is an essential element in every short story. The conflict tells of some type of struggle:
i. Man (person or character) against man;
ii. Man against society;
iii. Man against his environment / nature;
iv. Man against himself. (This may be physical or psychological, but whatever it is, the conflict propels the story on to its final solution.)
Conflict may be internal or external. The tension created by this conflict gives rise to drama and action in the story. By identifying commonly experienced conflicts in a novel, we can identify THEME; ie how character/ s attempt to deal with and resolve major conflict in their lives is what the author wants us to consider.
Every story is told or narrated from at least one position or point of view. Some stories are told using several different points of view. (For example, a novel written in the third person may contain letters from character/s, providing us with a separate first person perspective.)
Where is the story set?
What event starts the story?
Who are the main characters?
What conflict(s) do they face?
How and when are the main characters introduced?
How is the story moved along so that the characters must face the central conflict?
How and when does the problem resolve most of the major conflict set up at the outset?
Complex narrative structure is used by authors to add interest by complicating the story.
There are several authorial methods of achieving this. It can occur when the author uses causally unrelated narratives teamwork together to build thematic unity. This usually involves two or three or more clearly defined narratives each with their own sets of characters. There is often little or no intermingling of characters or narrative events, simply two or three narratives existing alongside each other.
One of the problems this causes authors involves not letting the reader lose track of what's going on. Since there are so many stories happening at once, a lot more reader activity is required to keep track of the various narratives. Therefore time and place are usually
clearly defined: events often occur within a very specific time frame in a specific locale to keep the reader focused. In order to achieve a form of formal closure, there is usually an event at the end of the story that brings all characters to one location or at least affects
them all in some way.
Another way an author can use complex narrative structure is in inter layering many flashbacks, or introducing fantasy elements or stories within stories to make the story diverge from a central plot line while maintaining thematic unity.
- flashbacks
- dream sequences
- repetition
- different characters' point of view
- multiple plot lines converging at the end
- flash forwards
- different time frames
- pre-figuring of events that have not yet taken place
- circular plotting where we are led back to the beginning
- backwards storytelling, where the denouement is shown first and
explained through the plot.
Point of View and Reader Positioning:
Narrators play a key role in reader positioning. The narrator has the important job of telling the reader how to interpret the world of the story. The narrator acts as a filter or lens through which the reader can see the story. The reader is positioned in relation to the characters and the issues in the story by the way the narrator interprets the events. Different narrators will interpret events differently.
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