|
|
Fictional Narrative Basics - Point of View
Unit Completion Date: End of Week 5
|
| [ Previous ][ 7 ][ Next ] |
The "person" employed in point of view is identifiable by the pronouns used to relate the main action of the story. Generally, stories are presented in one of two persons:
- First person, in which the narrator is also a character involved in the action, and refers to himself or herself as "I," employing the first person pronoun. This is referred to as a "first person narrator."
- Third person, in which the narrator is not a character in the action, and refers to all characters using third person pronouns "she," "he," and "they."
You may come across a story told in the second person, employing the "you" pronoun. "How to Talk to a Hunter" by Pam Houston (anthologized in What If?) is such a story.
Person establishes the narrator's basic relationship to the characters and actions of the story. A first person narrator, while not always a main character, is "on stage" as an actor in the drama and so has specific relationships with the other characters and inhabits a common world. A third person narrator observes the action and relates it to the reader, often with judgments or opinions regarding characters and events, but is not a character within the story and does not interact with the characters.
|
| [ Previous ][ 7 ][ Next ] |
|
