Do now # 15, Sept 6, 2013 Please write about an important event in your life. Make sure that it is just one specific moment. The only other requirement is that there should at least be one other person involved in moment. Ex: After work one day I met up with my two friends for dinner. Jorge, my good friend from graduate school, was telling a story about his day. All of us friends joke around and make light of everything. Like when Eric got a speeding ticket, we told him that, “You are lucky you got a ticket for speeding instead of a fine for driving that piece of junk you have.” Jorge was telling a story and I said, “If only your mom was by your side she could have protected you.” He did not laugh and instead told me “I just can’t talk to you about anything serious.” We haven’t spoken in three weeks since. Now write about the event from another person’s point of view, or from “gods” point of view who can see everything.

Agenda 15 Goal: To identify the point of view of our text and explain how it affects the story Do Now Point of View “The Lottery” “It Would Be Different If” Why is Point of View Valuable HW: Study notes for quiz on Monday and write one paragraph how PoV influences meaning of “It Would Be Different If”

Point of view Point of view: refers to who tells us the story and how it is told. Why we care: what we know and how we feel about the events in a story are shaped by the author’s choice of a point of view. The teller of a story, the narrator, inevitably affects our understanding of the characters’ actions by filtering what is told through his or her own perspective. Warning: The narrator should not be confused with the author who has created the narrative voice because the two are usually distinct. Meyer, MIchael. "Point of View." The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Vol. 10. Boston: Beford, 2013. 215-30. Print.

Questions to Consider What if “The Fun House” would have been told by the husband? What if “Ind Aff” would have been told by the wife of the professor What if “The Storm” was told through the eyes of the wife

Types of Point of View Third Person Narrator (non-participant) Second Person (instructive) First-Person Narrator (participant)

1. Third Person narrator Omniscient (the narrator takes us inside the characters) All knowing narrator This type can move from place to place, from character to character as no human being possibly could in real life. God narrator This narrator can report characters’ thoughts and feelings as well as what they say and do Ex: “The Storm” EX: Tarzan From the time Tarzan left the tribe…so happened that one of them recalled the parting admonition of Tarzan…”if you have a chief who is cruel..” and Tarzab knows instinctively where that same foot would touch…

1. Third Person narrator Limited omniscient (narrator takes us inside one or two characters) Much more confined and often restricts the narrator to the single perspective of with a major or a minor character. Sometimes narator can see more than one character, especially in longer works, ex: 2 characters alternate from ch. To ch. Short stories are often stuck to one characters thoughts and feelings, but no access to inner lives of other characters’ thoughts and feelings Ex: “The Fun House”

1. Third Person narrator Objective (the narrator is outside the characters) A narrator does no see into the mind of any character. The narrator only reports action and dialogue without telling us directly what the characters feel and think. This PofV places heavy focus on dialogue, actions, and detail to reveal character. Ex: Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” Krebs looked at the bacon fat hardening on his plate. “Your father is worried, too,” his mother went on…Krebs said nothing Ex: “The Lottery”

2. Second Person This is often used when you are trying to instruct someone to do something or give advise. First, you want to take down the bowl One should look both ways before crossing. You should look both ways before ways before crossing.

2. First person omniscient Major Character First-person Narrator, the “I” presents the oint of view of only one character’s consciousness. Everything learned about the characters, action, and plot comes from the Major Character. This PofV may force us to identify with the narrators so that we pay more attention to their feelings and thoughts Ex: Bless Me Ultima Minor Character A first-person narrator can also be a minor character Ex: House on Mango Street Ex: Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” uses “We” through plural and representative of the town’s view of Emily is a first person narrator.

Why we care about point of view Helps us determine where the author stands in relation to the story Behind the narrative voice of any story is the author, manipulating events and providing or withholding information.

Why we care about point of view Careful of unreliable narrator whose interpretation of events is different from the author’s. We may not be able to entirely accept a narrators assessment of a situation, events, or characters.  Ex: Ind Aff’s narrator If you agree and just trust the narrator you are forced to see her as a hero, but if you believe she is an unreliable narrator then you question if she has indeed already “shot” the “Archduke,” meaning she has already had a negative affect. Narrators can be unreliable for a variety of reasons: they might lack self-knowledge, they might be innocent, inexperienced,  ex: Mark Twain, Holden Caulfield

Why we care about point of view It is hard to make strict generalizations about the benefits and drawbacks of various points of view. What can be said is that writers choose a point of view to achieve particular affects because point of view determines what we know about the characters and events in the story. We should be aware who is telling the story and whether the narrator sees things clearly and reliably.

The Lottery Read this story focusing on the use of Third Person Objective Why did the author choose this POV and how does it affect the story Write a paragraph of how it affects our understanding of the story Write a paragraph of how our understanding would shift if the POV is from another POV