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first-person narrator
third-person narrator

(second-person narrator)

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omniscient (🇩🇪 auktorial )
limited (🇩🇪 personal )

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Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

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What Is Narrative Point of View?

(View all literary devices)

Authors don't speak to us directly in literary works. They use an intermediary device called a narrator. Narrative point of view is the perspective of that narrator.

First person narrative point of view occurs when the narrator is telling the story. "Call me Ismael," the first line of Melville's novel, Moby Dick, reveals that the story will be in first person point of view. Occasionally, a literary work can have a first person plural narrative, as in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," in which the entire town ("we") narrates.

In third person limited point of view, the narrator is separate from the main character but sticks close to that character's experience and actions. The reader doesn't know anything that the character could not know, nor does the reader get to witness any plot events when the main character isn't there.

Third person omniscient point of view, on the other hand, features a god-like narrator who is able to enter into the minds and action of all the characters. Some authors, like Jack London and Leo Tolstoy, even enter the minds of animals!

Generally speaking, the more distance the narrator has from the characters, the more reliable the point of view is to present the story truthfully. First person narratives, which filter all information through a character who might be insane or have limited intelligence, are notoriously unreliable.

How Do You Identify Point of View in Writing?

First person singular and plural points of view are easy to figure out; you simply look for the pronouns "I" or "we." The tricky part is differentiating between limited and omniscient third person narrative point of view.

Questions to ask yourself: Does the narrative follow more than one character's story? Do you learn what more than one character is thinking? Do several characters' perspectives contribute to your understanding of themes and plot events?

If the answer to any of these questions is "yes," the point of view is probably third person omniscient.

Examples of Narrative Point of View

1. "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge." - first person point of view in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado."

2. "The boy, crouched on his nail keg at the back of the crowded room, knew he smelled cheese, and more: from where he sat he could see the ranked shelves close-packed with the solid, squat, dynamic shapes of tin cans whose labels his stomach read, not from the lettering which meant nothing to his mind but from the scarlet devils and the silver curve of fish - this, the cheese which he knew he smelled and the hermetic meat which his intestines believed he smelled coming in intermittent gusts momentary and brief between the other constant one, the smell and sense just a little of fear because mostly of despair and grief, the old fierce pull of blood."

This passage from William Faulkner's story "Barn Burning" is a good example of third person limited point of view. The reader experiences the scene, in which the boy's father is being tried for arson in a makeshift court, strictly through the child's eyes. Notice that the boy is illiterate.

3. "Everyone else said of her: 'She is such a good mother. She adores her children.' Only she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so. They read it in each other eyes."

This passage from D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" is third person omniscient narration; the reader sees the thoughts of both the mother and her children.

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What is Narrative Point of View? | Definition and Examples

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(View all literary devices) Authors don't speak to us directly in literary works. They use an intermediary device called a narrator. Narrative point of view is the perspective of that narrator. First person narrative point of view occurs when the narrator is telling the story.

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detailed description of a certain situation

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short description(s) of periods of time

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dialogue

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present tense, first person

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past tense, third person

🇩🇪 erlebte Rede

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no interference or introductory clauses like “she said”

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Table of Contents

flashback, in motion pictures and literature, narrative technique of interrupting the chronological sequence of events to interject events of earlier occurrence. The earlier events often take the form of reminiscence. The flashback technique is as old as Western literature. In the Odyssey, most of the adventures that befell Odysseus on his journey home from Troy are told in flashback by Odysseus when he is at the court of the Phaeacians.

The use of flashback enables the author to start the story from a point of high interest and to avoid the monotony of chronological exposition. It also keeps the story in the objective, dramatic present.

In motion pictures, flashback is indicated not only by narrative devices but also by a variety of optical techniques such as fade-in or fade-out (the emergence of a scene from blackness to full definition, or its opposite), dissolves (the gradual exposure of a second image over the first while it is fading away), or iris-in or iris-out (the expansion or contraction of a circle enclosing the scene).

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Flashback | cinematography and literature

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flashback, in motion pictures and literature, narrative technique of interrupting the chronological sequence of events to interject events of earlier occurrence. The earlier events often take the form of reminiscence. The flashback technique is as old as Western literature.

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Table of Contents

foreshadowing, the organization and presentation of events and scenes in a work of fiction or drama so that the reader or observer is prepared to some degree for what occurs later in the work. This can be part of the general atmosphere of the work, or it can be a specific scene or object that gives a clue or hint as to a later development of the plot. The disastrous flood that occurs at the end of George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss (1860), for example, is foreshadowed by many references to the river and to water in general throughout the book.

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foreshadowing, the organization and presentation of events and scenes in a work of fiction or drama so that the reader or observer is prepared to some degree for what occurs later in the work.

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description of what characters do and events that take place

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description of what is going on in the minds of characters

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Table of Contents

setting, in literature, the location and time frame in which the action of a narrative takes place.

The makeup and behaviour of fictional characters often depend on their environment quite as much as on their personal characteristics. Setting is of great importance in Émile Zola's novels, for example, because he believed that environment determines character. In some cases the entire action of a novel is determined by the locale in which it is set. Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857) could hardly have been placed in Paris, because the tragic life and death of the heroine have a great deal to do with the circumscriptions of her provincial milieu. It sometimes happens that the main locale of a novel assumes an importance in the reader's imagination comparable to that of the characters. Wessex is a giant, brooding presence in Thomas Hardy's novels. The popularity of Sir Walter Scott's "Waverley" novels is due in part to their evocation of a romanticized Scotland. Setting may be the prime consideration of some readers, who can be drawn to Joseph Conrad because he depicts life at sea or in the East Indies; they may be less interested in the complexity of human relationships that he presents.

The setting of a novel may be an actual city or region made greater than life, as in James Joyce's characterization of Dublin. But settings may also be completely the work of an author's imagination: in Vladimir Nabokov's Ada (1969), for example, there is an entirely new space-time continuum, and in The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) J.R.R. Tolkien created an "alternative world" in his Middle Earth.

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setting, in literature, the location and time frame in which the action of a narrative takes place. The makeup and behaviour of fictional characters often depend on their environment quite as much as on their personal characteristics. Setting is of great importance in Émile Zola's novels, for example, because he believed that environment determines character.

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flat <=> round

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flat and round characters | Definition & Examples

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Flat and round characters, description of characters by the course of their development in a work of literature. Flat characters are two-dimensional and do not change over time, whereas round ones are complex and undergo development.

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direct <=> indirect

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outside ➡️ inside
- outward appearance
- job
- family / relationships
- behaviour
- reactions to others / others’ reactions to character
- choice of language
- attitudes
- thoughts
- feelings

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Protagonist: Protagonist, in ancient Greek drama, the first or leading actor. The poet Thespis is credited with having invented tragedy when he introduced this first actor into Greek drama, which formerly consisted only of choric dancing and recitation. The protagonist stood opposite the chorus and engaged in

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Antagonist, in literature, the principal opponent or foil of the main character, who is referred to as the protagonist, in a drama or narrative. The word is from the Greek antagnistḗs, "opponent or

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When looking at some sites about plot and story, I ran across this quote (or misquote?) a few times:

The king died and then the queen died. The king died and then the queen died of grief.

The first sentence is a story, while the second is a plot. Apparently this example comes from E.M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel. According to this review, the book is 175 pages of must-read material!

Anyway, I do like that example of his. I also like this explanation:

A story is a series of events recorded in their chronological order. A plot is a series of events deliberately arranged so as to reveal their dramatic, thematic, and emotional significance.

The way I think of it, a plain story is like history: boring. ;) But a plot is someone's telling of the story. It may be biased or inaccurate, but it's more interesting! Many works of fiction are based on the same basic stories or actual events. Is there even such a thing as a truly original story? I doubt it.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets frustrated when trying to come up with an original story. Everything's been done before! I need to constantly remind myself that the originality is all in the plot, the telling of the story.

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When looking at some sites about plot and story, I ran across this quote (or misquote?) a few times: The king died and then the queen died. The king died and then the queen died of grief. The first sentence is a story, while the second is a plot.