Point of view

Last updated on August 25th, 2021 at 02:53 pm

There are three kinds of point of view:

     The first-person narrator

The author tells the story from the I, me, we, us perspective. The narrator is one of the characters in the story. In this instance, the author narrates the story as one of the characters and in this case, he/she takes part in the actions that take place in the story.

Example: I sat down on the cold floor – lost in thought but very alert to my surrounding – if you could call the small hole of a prison a surrounding. This was going to be my home for the next five years. Every day I regretted disobeying my parents’ warnings. My mother had been especially adamant that she did not like Harriet – the girl I was hanging out with and who I thought was an angel.

     The second-person narrator

It is a type of narration that is told from the you, your perspective. It is not a common way of narration but when it is used, the author wants to draw the attention of the reader to the story by bringing him/her closer to the text and make him/her feel he/she is part of the events happening in the story.

Example: You are quietly working on your assignments. Your classmates are chatting and shouting. You are trying really hard to concentrate and you wish something would happen to shut the noise out. Then suddenly the class is quiet. You look around to find out why the class is quiet but you see nothing unusual.You notice everybody is seated at their desk pretending to be busy. You are perturbed and scan the class – your eyes meet with Mr Ndayikunda’s – the disciplinary master. He is watching the class from the back window. You hurriedly go back to your assignment and do it by yourself.

     The third-person narrator

The story is narrated from a he/she, they or it perspective. The author refers to the characters in third person using the pronouns ‘he’, ‘she’, or by their names.

We have two types:

• Objective narrator is a third-person narrator that describes characters from the outside only, never revealing their thoughts. The narrator is an observer who describes the character’s appearance, speech and actions in a way that enables us to infer their thoughts. He/she does not know more about the character than what they choose to show. He is also called “a dramatic character”.
• Omniscient narrator is also a third-person narrator who knows what the character thinks and what is happening everywhere. This narrator is like the superhero or eye of God because he/she knows everything.He/she knows every move made by characters, their motives, thoughts and feelings; and he/she is not restricted by time or space. Omniscient narrator can jump from a character’s head to another’s, from a character to another, from scene to scene, from one place to another because he is all-knowing.