Chapter 6: Study Project on Narrator and Point of View

It is always helpful to consider what kind of narrator or narrators a story has.  Narrators often define such other elements of a story as point of view, range of knowledge, reliability, and tone. If a story has a first person narrator, we expect that the story will render the narrator's experiences and feelings in some way.  If the story has a third person narrator, we may expect more objectivity and perhaps a greater range of knowledge about other characters and circumstances.  When thinking about how a story is told it is a good idea to determine

1. what kind(s) of narrator a story employs
2. how wide the range of knowledge is that the narrator displays
3. through whose points of view a story is narrated.

1. What kind of narrator?

We typically determine what "person" a story's narrator is by looking at the pronouns the story uses to describe events—first person narrators use "I," third person narrators use "he," "she," "they," or "us."  In the following passages decide what "person" the narrator is.

1. "It was Paul's afternoon to appear before the faculty of the Pittsburgh High School to account for his various misdemeanors."
2. "It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and me secure ancestral halls for the summer."
3. "The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway."
4. "Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building.  Its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity."
5. "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death."

Occasionally, readers must read a portion of the story before discerning that there is more than one narrator or that the original narrator is a frame narrator.  The narration might also change from being the first person narrative of one character to being the first person narrative of another or from being a first person narrator to a third person narrator.  It is a good idea to keep track of what kind of narrator is narrating throughout.  You might also consider the following questions:

1. Why does this story employ the kind of narrator it employs?
2. If the story changes narrator, for what purpose or effect?
3. What kinds of information is this story able to impart by employing a first or third person narrator?

2. Range of Knowledge

Because we tend to ignore the narrator as a part of a story's construction, we also tend not to consider how the narrator knows what it knows, especially if the narrator is a third person narrator.  It is therefore always a good idea to consider from what points of view narrators narrate.  While first person narrators are generally limited to their own point of view, third person narrators may limit the knowledge to what only one or a few characters might know (third person limited) to a general omniscience about events and the interior lives of all characters.  Even if third person narrators are omniscient, they rarely display all of their knowledge; rather, stories deploy third person narrators as a strategic means to convey information from multiple sources—and often as if outside the story altogether.  It is useful to consider what the narrator's range of knowledge is.  The following are characteristics you might observe to determine a narrator's range of knowledge:

1. Is the narrator‘s knowledge limited to the knowledge of one or more of the characters?
2. Does the narrator have information the characters don't have?
3. Is there more than one narrator?  In what ways is their knowledge limited?

3. Knowledge and Point of view

If you know the narrator's range of knowledge, you might consider the following questions about how the narrator works as the vector through which the story is presented:

1. What is the effect of having knowledge limited to a few characters (if it is)?  What kinds of knowledge do we have?  What kinds of knowledge are omitted?
2. In what ways is telling the story through the point of view of a character or character related to the events and feelings that are imparted?
3. If the point of view shifts from character to character, what things seem to catalyze that shift?  What are the effects of that shift?
4. How might the narrator's lack of knowledge invite curiosity?
5. How might an omniscient narrator's omission of information make apparent the choices made about how the story is told?

Putting It All Together

Who the narrator is, what narrators know, and through whose point of view (if any) information is filtered tell us much about the art of telling or narrating. Narration is as much about what is omitted as it is about producing a credible scene of telling.  We only know what is conveyed through the narrator, which in turn is a part of the story, the imaginary source of its telling.  The scene and/or persona of telling is what we call "the narrator."  It is useful to consider how the choice of narrator and point of view relate to  what a story is about—how the telling of a story's telling is linked to what it tells.

If you were a feminist critic, you might consider how a story depicts gender and gender relations, the experience of female characters, or the effects of their absence.  If the story is narrated by a female character or from her point of view, you might consider what that narration tells us about the experience of women.  If you were going to look at issues of sexuality in a story, you would consider how a story depicts sexual relations and behavior or the ways the text reflects the experience of characters who identify themselves (or who might be identified as) as gay, lesbian, or other sexual minorities.  You might also consider the ways a story depicts desire in general.