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I’ve recently added a search function so that you can limit your Google search to just the blogs that are members of MetaxuCafe. I think that will be a good resource for everyone looking for literary topics online and you’ll find it right on the front page as well as other places on the site. Now if you want to read about, say Orhan Pamuk, but only want to search the litblogs you trust, you can narrow your search right here.
Darth Vader Killed Your Father: the View on Point of View
by Bluestocking on January 23, 2008
Originally posted at: The Bluestocking Guide: Reviews by a Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Reader
tags: literary essay,Leave a comment
I haven’t written any essays in a while, so it is time to turn to another concept in literary analysis- point of view. This essay will be analyzing the different types of point of view and its effectiveness in telling the story. There are three main types of narratives: first person, second person, and third person.
In first person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story. As a result there is “close” psychic distance. The story unfolds through that person’s eyes, and the reader is privy to the narrator’s thoughts and motivations. In the first person narrative, “I” and “we” are the common pronouns used. The disadvantage is that the reader absorbs the narrators prejudices. An example of this sort of narration would be the Sherlock Holmes mysteries which are told first person by Dr. Watson; another example is Dracula which are the diary accounts of the main characters.
The second person point of view is not typically used in writing. The only examples I can give you are the “Choose Your Own Adventure” type of books. “You” the reader tell the story because you choose to turn to page 6 for option A or turn to page 17 for option B.
The most popular point of view is the third person which can be further broken down into third person limited and third person omniscient. In third person limited the story is told from the perspective of one of the characters. The story unfolds as the character perceives it. So basically when Harry Potter is in the common room, the reader only knows what is happening in the common room. This point of view is both limited and biased. The reader sees everything over the character’s shoulder so to speak. Unless one is extraordinarily perceptive it can be difficult to filter out the truth.
In third person omniscient, the narrator tells the story from a distance. The narrator knows and communicates what each character is thinking and feeling. Therefore the reader knows and sees more than the other characters do. However this point of view gives the reader a greater psychic distance from the story.
Typically speaking, once an author begins using a certain point of view, they stay with it throughout the story. However at times, switching the point of view, can be effective at getting important unbiased information across to the reader, or clues the reader into some important change. I know this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in a vacuum, so we’ll be looking at some examples by way of comparison.
First person narrative
I know this book has been featured twice on the blog already but Frank Peretti’s The Visitation is a perfect example of first person narrative. The story is told by Travis Jordan, the former pastor at Antioch Pentecostal Mission. This story is as much a psychological thriller as a supernatural thriller. Justin Cantwell was so effective as the Antioch “Messiah” becasue he appealed to the town’s psychological hurts. To truly understand Justin’s hold over people it was necessary to trace Travis Jordan’s psychological journey through life. For this type of story, this point of view was quite effective. It would have been very difficult to do flash back scenes with the more distant psychic distance of third person point of view. It would be a lot more difficult to empathize or understand the main character’s inner turmoil if one were merely looking over the character’s shoulder.
This story is also a good illustration of the limitations of first person point of view. With this type of narrative, one only sees and perceives what the characters does; it is impossible to see what is going on elsewhere. To overcome these limitations, the author uses third person objective to set the scene. The first couple of character give the reader an objective view of the town of Antioch as well as an objective view of the citizens to truly understand where the people were spiritually and psychologically prior of Justin Cantwell as well as how the people and town changed for the worst as a result. If these more objective narratives had been lacking it would have been too easy to write Travis off as a fundamentalist and just being intolerant of others’ religious beliefs.
The first person narrative is also quite effective in the mystery genre. Consider the Jane Austen Mystery Series by Stephanie Barron in contrast with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Barron’s mysteries are told from Jane’s perspective while the Holmes mysteries are told from Dr. Watson’s perspective. In the case of Jane Austen, she solves mysteries by character analysis. She listens to what people say, how they say it, as well as considering their body language. In addition to this during that day in age, much of a person’s veracity was determined by adherence to the rules of society. As Jane is most conversant in the social mores, it is much easier for the reader to follow the character development; otherwise, the average reader would have way to know what conduct “should be.” This is a contrast with Sherlock Holmes, who solves crime by pure logical deduction. Holmes solving the crime seems almost supernatural. Dr. Watson as a narrator helps this perception. First we know that Watson is a medical doctor. As a medical doctor he would employ no small degree of logical deduction to treat patient’s illnesses. Second we see that Watson is not unobservant. Watson does pay a good deal of attention to what goes on around him. If Watson was any other type of man, Holmes’ triumphs would be less. One would think that the crimes where not solves due to stupidity on the part of the police and Watson rather than the extraordinary genius of Holmes.
Third person limited point of view
Most stories are told from the third person point of view specifically third person limited. As it was mentioned in previous paragraphs, this point of view can be extraordinarily biased. Consider Emma by Jane Austen. The story is told from Emma’s perspective. The story progresses as information is made available to Emma. In addition, we are privy to the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of Emma. As a result the undiscerning reader is blinded to the fact that all is not as it appears to be to Emma. Case in point, Emma’s companionship with Harriet Smith. Emma believes Harriet Smith is the illegitimate daughter of a gentleman due to the financial provisions made for Harriet. Emma completely overlooks the fact that there are plenty of people outside the gentry who would have the wherewithal to provide Harriet with the comfortable lifestyle she has. Emma does rightly observe that a stain upon birth can be assuaged where there is nobility. However, she seems to forget that the illegitimate children of nobles were regularly introduced and accepted into society. She should have recognized as Knightley did, that Harriet was left in the society where she was for a reason- Harriet’s father were merely a merchant. As such that stain could not be forgiven.
Also consider the faux pas with Mr. Elton. Emma imagined that Mr. Elton’s courtesy to Harriet was blossoming love. She overlooked the fact that all Mr. Elton’s compliments merely mimicked what she said about Harriet. She completely overlooked the fact that men will never disagree with women whose affections they are trying to gain. In addition what sense would it make for a man to send a “courtship” riddle to a woman he did not want to court. It is clear to the discerning reader that Emma definitely engages in some serious flights of fancy. To inject some sense into the book, the author changes point of view by using third person objective as well as third person limited from Knightley’s view.
The first change of point of view is the chapter describing Mr. Weston’s history. It is clear that Emma thinks Mr. Weston is wonderful; however, the reader is left to ponder why any man would give up his son to be raised by others- cheerfully no less. Mr. Weston had very little if any contact with his son and did not seem the least bit bother by this. The second instance is where Jane Fairfax’s history is given. Emma’s perception of Jane is clouded by jealousy. Jane, Emma’s foil, has what Emma wants- beauty, accomplishments, and varied society. We see from Jane’s history that she was the most appropriate companion for Emma as she had birth and breeding not Harriet Smith! Let’s face it, Jane’s sensibility rubbing off on Emma could only be a good thing. Last, there is the chapter detailing Knightley’s observations on the relationship between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax. We see that Knightley picks up on the fact that Frank knew Perry was setting up a carriage and that the only people who knew this were the Bates family. He also picks up on Frank’s realization that Jane must have told him about the carriage. Knightley also notices that Frank uses the letter puzzle “blunder” as a means of communicating with Jane. These changes in point of view were successful. No one should have been surprised based upon Knightley’s observations throughout the book that Frank and Jane had a secret engagement or that Frank was using his flirtation with Emma as a cover.
Last but not least we turn to Harry Potter. This story is told from Harry’s perspective. In this series, we see the author uses third person limited and third person omniscient as a way to layer the mystery in the series. First thing that should have been picked up on is that Harry is not observant or curious. Since we essentially tag along with him, we are hampered by his inability to ask the logical follow up question or take initiative to research on his own.
I’ll be quite honest, if I had been Harry, I would have taken the Hermione approach. I know none of you would be surprised that I would have successfully read the entire Hogwarts library before Christmas. I would have been soaking up magical theory like one of those pop up sponges. To a certain extent, I think most of us would have been extremely curious about the Wizarding world. Of course, if Rowling had made Harry that realistic there would have been only three or four books instead of seven. Of course that would have ruined everything. But I have to tell you I would have dearly loved to shake Harry!
At times the author used the third person objective to set the stage or give clearer perspective. In the Sorcerer’s Stone, we watch the scene where Harry is brought to Privet Drive unfold as a bystander. We know that something terrible has happened, but we don’t know how or why. Because we are not privy to Dumbledore or McGonagall’s thoughts there is a great deal of information out of our reach. But this point of view is effective for setting the first of many mysteries in the series. The second change of point of view is the first chapter of the Goblet of Fire describing the history of the Riddle House. It was necessary to understand the background of the location in order to unfold Lord Voldemort’s plan in effectuating his rebirth. There would have been no way to establish this from Harry’s perspective. Finally there is the chapter Spinner’s End in the Half-Blood Prince. I do not think I truly appreciated how dangerous a game Snape was playing until that point in the book. There were definite clues that Draco’s task was to kil Dumbledore. But more importantly that that in brought the questions home: Whom does Severus serve? It was hard to tell from that chapter because good arguments could be made on both sides. But one thing that I found interesting was that none of Snape’s assertions could be verified. We do not know that he really provided information that led to the death of Emmaline Vance. In fact most of Snape’s argument was using Bellatrix’s prejudices against her. The chapter was quite telling in what it wasn’t telling. This and this along cast doubt as to Snape’s participation/motivation in Dumbledore’s death.
Hopefully you no realize and appreciate how major a plot device point of view is in storytelling. Now that you know what to look for, see how much more you understand about character motivation based solely upon who is telling the story. You may be surprised how much more you can guess about a story’s ending.
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