Point of View All or Part of the Story?

What Is Point of View? Point of view is the vantage point from which a story is told. How you understand a story is often based on the narrator (the person telling the story) and his or her point of view. I couldn’t believe it: When we got home, we found that there had obviously been a break-in. Someone had messed with our breakfast and had broken Junior’s chair. We were horrified to hear noises coming from the bedroom. We knew the intruder was still there. Amanda Trimble

Common Points of View The three most common points of view: Third Person Omniscient Third-person limited First person

Omniscient Point of View In the omniscient (all-knowing) point of view, the narrator knows everything about the characters and their problems. The narrator tells the story from the outside—he or she is not a character in the story.

Third Person- Omniscient Point of View Lorna Hayden and her daughter Lily were sitting at the kitchen table after a difficult family meeting. The time had finally come to move. Lorna had lost her job in April and hadn’t found another. The job market was tough, but even tougher in Glenfield. She hoped that the move to Phoenix would provide the family with better opportunities closer to her family. Lily, though, did not understand. To her, moving meant leaving her friends and having to start all over again. “How could this happen to us?”she asked herself. Little did either know that between Glenfield and Phoenix, a miracle would happen. Amanda Trimble

Third-Person-Limited Point of View In third-person-limited point of view, the narrator focuses on the thoughts and feelings of only one character. Readers see the story through the eyes of only that one character. The narrator is not a character in the story.

Third-Person-Limited Point of View For the Hayden family, the time had finally come to move, although Lily did not understand. She sat at the kitchen table following the difficult family meeting she’d had with her mother. Lily thought to herself, “How could this happen to us?” She knew that her mother had lost her job in April and hadn’t found another, yet. Despite her mother’s explanations, Lily didn’t see why that meant they had to move clear across the country. To her, moving meant leaving her friends and having to start all over again. Amanda Trimble

First-Person Point of View In first-person point of view, the narrator is one of the characters in the story. •The narrator speaks with the pronoun I. •Readers know only what this character tells them about other characters, events, and places. The narrator may not always know important facts or may even be keeping secrets from readers.

First-Person Point of View It was time for us to move. Mom and I had just had a difficult family meeting to talk about the decision she had made to move to Phoenix. How could this happen to us? Mom had lost her job in April and hadn’t found another, yet, but did that really mean we had to move clear across the country? Why couldn’t she look harder or just take a lower-paying job so that we could stay here, where I could be with my friends and not have to start all over again? Amanda Trimble

What Have You Learned? Match these story clips with the point of view used. Omniscient First person Third-person limited Omniscient Third-person limited First person _________________— Carmen saw movement in the bushes. She worried: “What if it’s the creature?” _________________— Carmen saw movement in the bushes. She worried: “What if it’s the creature?” The creature in the bushes also worried: “What if the human finds me here?” _________________— I saw something move in the bushes. What if it’s the creature?

The End