Narrator – Simply, the person who tells the story to the audience in a narrative. In fiction, presented in the first person, the “I” who tells the story is the narrator Who are the narrators in the following narratives? NARRATION AND NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
First Person: The story is relayed by a narrator who is also a character within the story (many times this is the protagonist) “I” or “We” (plural) The first-person narrative is used as a way to directly convey the deeply internal, otherwise unspoken thoughts of the narrator. Second Person: The rarest mode in literature. The narrator refers to one of the characters as "you", therefore making the audience member feel as if he or she is a character within the story. (Popular in song lyrics) Third Person Limited: The most commonly used narrative mode in literature. Each and every character is referred to by the narrator as "he", "she", "it", or "they", but never as "I" or "we” (first person) or “you” (second person). One characters perspective. NARRATIVE MODES
Third Person Omniscient: The reader is presented the story by a narrator with a, godlike perspective, seeing and knowing everything that happens within the world of the story, regardless of the presence of certain characters, including everything all of the characters are thinking and feeling. Alternating Person View: While the general rule is for novels to adopt a single approach to point of view throughout, there are exceptions. Many stories, especially in literature, alternate between the first and third person. In this case, an author will move back and forth between a more omniscient third-person narrator to a more personal first person narrator. NARRATIVE MODES CONT.
“When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant — a combined gardener and cook — had seen in at least ten years...” Which P.O.V is this? “A ROSE FOR EMILY” WILLIAM FAULKNER
"This Anselmo had been a good guide and he could travel wonderfully in the mountains. Robert Jordan could walk well enough himself and he knew from following him since before daylight that the old man could walk him to death. Robert Jordan trusted the man, Anselmo, so far, in everything except judgment. He had not yet had an opportunity to test his judgment, and, anyway, the judgment was his own responsibility.” Which P.O.V is this? FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS EARNEST HEMMINGWAY
“Pippin looked out from the shelter of Gandalf’s cloak. He wondered if he was awake or still sleeping, still in the swift- moving dream in which he had been wrapped so long since the great ride began. The dark world was rushing by and the wind sang loudly in his ears. He could see nothing but the wheeling stars, and away to his right vast shadows against the sky where the mountains of the South marched past. Sleepily he tried to reckon the times and stages of their journey, but his memory was drowsy and uncertain.” Which P.O.V is this? THE LORD OF THE RINGS J.R.R TOLKIEN