Narrator’s Perspective Point of View
Narrator Characters The one who tells the story Everyone else in the story POINT OF VIEW describes WHO is telling, or narrating, the story. A story can be from the 1st person POV or from the 3rd person POV.
First-Person Point of View The Story Characters The Narrator “I” “We” The narrator is directly involved in the story. He/she is a character in the story.
First-Person uses “me” or “my” in the story. Example I went to the store with my friend. The clerk said, “Hi.” We bought candy and left. Who is telling the story? In First-Person, a character in the story is narrating. The narrator would use words like “I” or “we”.
Third-Person Point of View The Story Narrator Characters “He” “She” “They” The narrator is outside of the story. He/she is NOT a character in the story.
Third-Person uses the words “his” or “her” in the story Third-Person uses the words “his” or “her” in the story. The narrator will also refer to the protagonist by name. Example Chris loved basketball. Every day he played after school. When it got dark, he watched it on TV. From whose perspective is the story told? In Third-Person, the story is told from someone who is NOT in the story. The narrator is an outsider looking in and would use words like “he” or “she” when referring to the protagonist.
Dialogue & Narration Dialogue = When characters speak. Narration = When the narrator speaks. He went home directly from school and saw his mother in the kitchen. “I’m so hungry!” he said. “Can you make me something to eat?” ONLY LOOK AT THE NARRATION (what is NOT in quotation marks), or you’ll get confused.
Review 1st Person Point of View = Narrator is a character IN the story and tells the story using “I” 3rd Person Point of View = Narrator is NOT a character in the story, but an “outsider”. The narrator tells the story using “he” or “she” and refers to the protagonist by name.
Practice Excerpt from The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins Sixty seconds. That's how long we're required to stand on our metal circles before the sound of a gong releases us. Step off before the minute is up, and land mines blow your legs off. Sixty seconds to take in the ring of tributes all equidistant from the Cornucopia, a giant golden horn shaped like a cone with a curved tail, the mouth of which is at least twenty feet high, spilling over with the things that will give us life here in the arena. Food, containers of water, weapons, medicine, garments, fire starters. Strewn around the Cornucopia are other supplies, their value decreasing the farther they are from the horn. For instance, only a few steps from my feet lies a three-foot square of plastic. Certainly it could be of some use in a downpour. But there in the mouth, I can see a tent pack that would protect from almost any sort of weather. If I had the guts to go in and fight for it against the other twenty-three tributes. Which I have been instructed not to do.
Practice Excerpt from Travel Team By Mike Lupica He knew he was small. He just didn't think he was small. Big difference. Danny had known his whole life how small he was compared to everybody in his grade, from the first grade on. How he had been put in the front row, front and center, of every class picture taken. Been in the front of every line marching into every school assembly, first one through the door. Sat in the front of every classroom. Hey, little man. Hey, little guy. He was used to it by now. They'd been studying DNA in science lately; being small was in his DNA. He'd show up for soccer, or Little League baseball tryouts, or basketball, when he'd first started going to basketball tryouts at the Y, and there'd always be one of those clipboard dads who didn't know him, or his mom. Or his dad. Asking him: "Are you sure you're with the right group, little guy?"
Practice: On an index card, answer the following questions: From what point of view is your independent reading book told? (1st person or 3rd person) Choose 2-3 lines from the book that support your answer.