1. Point of View

2. Point of view (POV) The voice or perspective in which the story is told – First person: “I” and “we” statements – Second person: “You” statements – Third Person: external narrator; uses “he,” “hers,” and “they” statements

3. First person POV Can be an external narrator or a character in the story Uses words like: I, me, my, we, our, us Shares own thoughts and motivations Can observe action and report what is seen Does not know the thoughts of other characters

4. First person POV We had lain thus in bed, chatting and napping at short intervals, and Queequeg now and then affectionately throwing his brown tattooed legs over mine, and then drawing them back; so entirely sociable and free and easy were we; when, at last, by reason of our confabulations, what little nappishness remained in us altogether departed, and we felt like getting up again, though day-break was yet some way down the future. from Moby Dick

5. Second person POV The reader is addressed Can be difficult to use throughout long fiction More suited for non-fiction Uses words like: you, your

6. Second person POV What a singular moment is the first one, when you have hardly begun to recollect yourself, after starting from midnight slumber! By unclosing your eyes so suddenly you seem to have surprised the personages of your dream in full convocation round your bed, and catch one broad glance at them before they can flit into obscurity. Or, to vary the metaphor, you find yourself for a single instant wide awake in that realm of illusions whither sleep has been the passport, and behold its ghostly inhabitants and wondrous scenery with a perception of their strangeness such as you never attain while the dream is undisturbed. from “The Haunted Mind”

7. Third person POV Third person limited – An unnamed narrator – Told through one character’s eyes Third person omniscient – An unnamed narrator – Can reveal the thoughts and see the actions of any character Uses words like: he, his, him, her, hers, they, them, their, theirs

8. Third person limited POV Harry sat his office holding his head. He wondered out loud about how he was going to find the courage to tell his daughters that he could not travel with them to see their grandmother in Florida. He knew they would be upset. It was all they had talked about. Now, Harry would have to break their hearts. Slowly, he rose from his chair and gathered his coat and briefcase. This would be the longest drive home.

9. Third person omniscient POV The whole family, in short, were properly overjoyed on the occasion. The younger girls formed hopes of coming out a year or two sooner than they might otherwise have done; and the boys were relieved from their apprehension of Charlotte's dying an old maid. Charlotte herself was tolerably composed. She had gained her point, and had time to consider of it. Her reflections were in general satisfactory. Mr. Collins to be sure was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. from Pride and Prejudice