Narrative Voice (Some basic types of narrators you will encounter when reading a short story)

Who is telling the story? A story needs a storyteller. The storyteller in a fictional piece is not simply the author. It is a voice that the author makes up in order to tell a story from a distinct perspective. That voice is the “narrator” of the story.

1st Person Narrator This is, in many ways, the simplest form of narrator because it’s the type of narrator we are used to being or listening to in real life. A 1st Person Narrator is simply a character in the story who tells the events to the reader. (Think of Ponyboy, for example.)

3rd Person Narrator We are familiar with this type of from stories we are told as children. A 3rd Person Narrator is not involved in the story, but tells us what happened. This is how Fairy Tales are usually told. There are several different types of 3rd Person Narrator…

3rd Person Omniscient This type of narrator can see everything that happens. An Omniscient narrator can tell us what is happening inside the heads of the characters, or in different places. The narrator for Cinderella is omniscient because they tell us what Cinderella and her Step Family and the Prince are all thinking.

3rd Person Limited This type of narrator may seems much like an Omniscient narrator, but a limited narrator has limits on what they can see. Generally the knowledge is limited to the thoughts and experiences of only one character. The narrator of “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” is an example because. They only know what Andy is thinking and what happens in the alley.

3rd Person Objective An objective narrator works like a reporter of events as they are happening. They do not know anything extra above what we would see if we were there to watch the scene play out ourselves. Imagine someone describing the scene of a play for us as it is acted out.

Character Presentation Through Narration We learn about other characters through the Narrator, first. A Narrator has two basic ways to reveal a character to us. 1. Direct Presentation: This is what a narrator or other characters tell us (ex. “Johnny had a bad temper.”) 2. Indirect Presentation: This is what a narrator shows us (ex. “Billy bumped into Johnny by accident, and Johnny flew into a rage.”