Transcript Point of View

A statement from Icarus himself:
First-Person-Participant
Narration
“You can’t understand. I was flying—I mean really
flying. I saw the world the way the gods do—I held
Apollo’s gaze with my own mortal eyes. How could I
not fly higher? But then the power of the god proved too
much. The wax melted. I plummeted into the sea. I paid
for my arrogance with my death.”
First-Person Participant in
Short Stories
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Narrative voice is presented through the “I”
pronoun.
There is absolutely no critical distance between
the character’s experience and his or her
understanding of the event.
For this reason, we consider this POV highly
suspect—it is the voice of the unreliable narrator,
who is too close physically or emotionally to the
events to be trustworthy.
The Unreliable Narrator’s perceptions may be
hampered by:
Inexperience (Cole Sear of The Sixth Sense,
or the unnamed narrator of “Cathedral,” or
Sammy of “A & P”)
 Youth (Scout of To Kill a Mockingbird or
the unnamed narrator of “Araby”)
 Mental incapacity (Forrest Gump of Forrest
Gump or Benjy of The Sound and the Fury)
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An Example of Unreliability:
Forrest Gump
“Jenny’s father was a very
loving man. He was always
hugging and kissing his
daughters.”
Do you remember how that comment
made your skin crawl? It was because
you perceived what Forrest could
not—that Jenny’s father was sexually
abusing his daughters. You had the
necessary critical distance Forrest
lacked.
Forrest wasn’t
lying; he just
did not have the
capacity to
understand what
you understood.
Advantages of First-Person
Participant
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A sense of the raw immediacy of the events; we are
completely privy to all the character’s thoughts.
A closeness to the narrating character it is simply not
possible to duplicate with any other point-of-view
option.
A great test of the characterization skills of the
author.
Most effective when the main character learns from
his or her own experience.
Examples of First-Person
Participant in Short Stories
“Araby” by James Joyce
 “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
 “First Confession” by Frank O’Connor
 “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
 “Flying Home” by Ralph Ellison
 “Good-bye, Columbus” by Philip Roth
 “My Man Bovanne” by Toni Cade Bambara
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First-Person-Participant
Narration in Novels
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First-Person Participants have more credibility as
narrators of novels because of the length of text.
This option is preferred for a narrator of a
Bildungsroman (an apprenticeship novel or novel of
an education like Great Expectations).
The change in the character is most discernable.
Consider the following:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Limitations of First-Person
Participant
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An almost-claustrophobic proximity to one
character.
An immediacy to events without an interpretive
consciousness to filter them.
No ironic distance for the author—only for the
reader, whom the author must rely on to do the
interpretive work.
The world view is almost invariably naïve or
isolated—or even insane (consider the novel
Losing Nelson).
A Statement from Daedalus,
the Witness:
First-Person-Observer
Narration
“I said to him, ‘Icarus, my son! Do not fly too low or
the dampness of the waves will weigh down the
feathers; do not fly too high, for the sun will melt the
wax, and the wax is already so fragile. . .
But he did not listen.
Intoxicated with joy, he
spiraled straight into the eye
of the god. Apollo was moved
to anger. The wax melted. I
watched as my only child fell
to his death. I was unable to
help him though he cried out,
‘Father!’”
First-Person Observer
 Narrative is characterized by the “I” pronoun.
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The central character is the witness, not the principal actor
of the story.
This allows the narrator to attain greater critical distance
from the events; usually, we are offered a more mature,
thoughtful perspective on why as well as how.
For this reason, we are more inclined to accept the
Observer as trustworthy.
This character therefore provides necessary middle ground
for the reader—this character ‘stands in’ and interprets for
us, and we take our emotional cues from him or her.
Advantages of First-Person
Observer
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A consciousness separate from the author’s or the
principal actor’s to filter the events of the story to
whose thoughts we are privy.
A credible on-scene witness
A trustworthy interpreter who offers the reader a
way to view the meaning of the events.
Most effective when the main character learns
from some one else’s experience, particularly
when that some else ends up dead.
Some Examples of First-Person
Observer in Short Stories
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Marlowe of “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad
The narrator of “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and
Gentlemen” by Tadeusz Borowski
The Lawyer of “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman
Melville
The narrator of “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
The Town of Jefferson, narrator of “A Rose for
Emily.”
Some Examples of First-Person
Observer in Novels
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Nelly Dean of Wuthering Heights by Emily
Bronte
Nick Carraway of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott
Fitzgerald
Jake Barnes of The Sun Also Rises by Ernest
Hemingway
Louis of Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
Tom Wingo of The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
In each of these pieces, the main character
has survived the cataclysmic events of the
story and delivers a moral judgment:
“Ah, Bartleby! Ah,
Humanity!”
Limitations of First-Person
Observer
Not as immediate as the Participant.
 Is usually reliable.
 However, can be as suspect as the Participant
(consider the barber in Ring Lardner’s
“Haircut”as an example of unreliability) if he or
she does not have the emotional awareness to
learn from the event.
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If you were Icarus:
Second-Person
Narration
You are master of the rushing wind; each stroke of
your wings raises you higher than you ever dreamed.
All warnings are ridiculous.You don’t see the world
the way a god does; you
are a god, and there is
no longer any place
forbidden to you. But
then you feel a slow
trickle down your arms,
down your
back…burning hot. The
wing frames tremble;
they loosen. And then
the sickening plunge--
Second-Person Narration
Narrative voice is presented through the “you”
pronoun.
 This voice conjures some of the immediacy of
First-Person Participant.
 No critical distance exists between the
character’s experience and his or her
understanding of the event.
 The voice is no more reliable than First-Person
Participant.
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Advantages of Second-Person
Narration
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The same degree of immediacy presented by FirstPerson Participant—you are privy to your own
‘thoughts’.
Useful for short, theme-driven pieces
Ideal ‘scenario’ for ads and intros.
Most effective for creating empathy in the reader.
Some Examples of SecondPerson Narration
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“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
“On Being the Target of Discrimination” by Ralph
Ellison
“How to Be A Writer” by Lorrie Moore
“Haircut” by Ring Lardner (limited to the frame
device; you sit in the chair as a barbershop patron)
“The Cask of Amontillado” (limited to the second
paragraph; you are Montresor’s confessor. The
rest of the story is First-Person Participant)