When you think of point of view, think of the “central intelligence” of your story – it is the thing that operates the eyes, ears, memory, and revelations, the thing through which your narrative is sifted and makes its progress. It is indicated by the pronouns that we use.
In first person, we use I/me. Generally, in this case, the protagonist is the first-person narrator. Any secondary characters (those that have a relationship with the protagonist and can relate to their experiences within the context of the story) or observers (witnesses that have limited or no participation in the story) are all filtered through the first-person narrator’s perspective.
In second person, the narrator is the reader. We do this by using second person pronouns – you/your. “You are constantly afraid that you will not be enough. The kingdom is fragile, fragile like an eggshell. A single strike and it will fall apart. Every battle, every dispute, you wonder: will this be it? Will this be the day you finally fail?” Second person is common in self-help books and anything giving directions. It is not common in fictional prose, but it does crop up from time to time. (If you’ve never read a second person story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a great example.)
Third person point of view uses the pronouns he/she/it/they. [NOTE: Most style guides now accept singular they.] With third person, we can get a more global view of what’s happening. The narrator and the main character are not the same person – they narrator is separate and therefore can comment on things that the main character may not know.
In addition to the above points of view, we want to consider which of the following makes the most sense for our story:
- limited – a narrator that follows only one person throughout the story; this narrator can witness the actions of other characters, but has access only to the thoughts of the main character
- multiple – follows more than one person throughout the story, allowing the story’s perspective to switch back and forth between individual stories/perspectives
- omniscient – the narrator can jump from head to head; they can witness the actions of as well as access the thoughts of any character within the story
- unreliable narrator – this is a narrator that cannot be trusted to accurately convey the story
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The next thing to discuss is the difference between point of view and perspective. Point of view focuses on the type of narrator used to tell the story – who is telling the story. Perspective instead focuses on how this narrator perceives what’s happening within the story (i.e. the narrator’s world view). In other words, perspective is how and through what lens the story is told (i.e. their culture, heritage, physical traits, personal experiences, etc.). When you have multiple narrators, you should have multiple perspectives. As Robert Evans notes, “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying.” (Did you have a sibling or a close family member or family friend you grew up with? Ask them to run through a memory you share – let them tell you how they experienced it. Chances are, they will have a different version of the memory from than you will.)
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Last, there is distance, which is the space between the narrator/main character and the event taking place – though it also refers to the space between the reader and the narrator/main character. Consider each of the following – the further down the list we go, the less the distance there is:
- It was winter of the year 1853. A large man stepped out of a doorway.
- Henry J. Warburton had never much cared for snowstorms.
- Henry hated snowstorms.
- Geez, he hated these damn snowstorms.
- Snow under your collar, down inside your shoes, freezing and plugging up your miserable soul.
Sometimes, it can work to hold the reader at a distance – but you need to consider what you may lose by doing so. A reader wants to be engaged by what is going on – if they feel they are being held at arm’s length, they may start to question why. They may start to wonder what the narrator is holding back. If you wish to do this, you need to make sure that it will pay off in a satisfying way.
If you are interested in learning more about unreliable narrators, consider Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” or “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Nolan’s “Memento Mori,” or Palahniuk’s “Fight Club.” In Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye,” Holden Caulfield admits he’s “the most terrific liar you ever saw.”
Ami Maxine 