The Lovely Bones Point of View

Point of View The mode of narration that an author employs to let the readers “hear” and “see” what takes place in a story.

First Person Point of View The story is revealed through a narrator who is also a character within the story, so that the narrator reveals the plot by referring to this viewpoint character with forms of "I” or “we”.

Second Person Point of View The narrator refers to the reader as "you", therefore making the audience member feel as if he or she is a character within the story.

Third Person Point of View The narrator is an unspecified entity or uninvolved person who conveys the story and is not a character of any kind within the story. Each and every character is referred to by the narrator as "he", "she", "it", or "they”. Three types of third person point of views. Omniscient, objective, subjective.

Narrative Voice Subjective: Also referred to as “limited” because the narrator is “limited” to the thoughts of some particular character (often the protagonist) as in the first-person mode, except still giving personal descriptions using "he", "she", "it", and "they", but not "I"

Narrative Voice Objective: A narrator who tells a story without describing any character's thoughts, opinions, or feelings; instead, it gives an objective, unbiased point of view.

Narrative Voice Omniscient: A narrator with an overarching point of view, seeing and knowing everything that happens within the world of the story, including what each of the characters is thinking and feeling.

Example: “I wish now that I had known this was weird. I had never told him my name. I guess I thought my father had told him one of the embarrassing anecdotes he saw merely as loving testaments to his children.” -The Lovely Bones, p.7

Example: “She wished now that she had known this was weird. Susie had never told him her name. She thought her father had told him one of the embarrassing anecdotes he saw merely as loving testaments to his children.” What changes in the new version?

Now, it’s your turn… Your job is to write the story of a fire drill, but from the perspective of something in the room. Number: Ones: You are the white board. Twos: You are the door. Threes: You are the desks/chairs Fours: You are the actual fire alarm. Describe to me the scene, what do you see? How do you feel? What’s going through your mind? Personify the object and tell me it’s story.