Walk in work

• Get out your notebook and book• Title your notes on Reading 4A and 4B Point of

View• Make a 4 column chart on 4B like this:

Point of view Pronounsused

Advantages Disadvantages

POINT of VIEW

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I Me

My We

Our

1st Person POV

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Story is told from a main character’s POV

First person Narrator

Advantages: • Readers see events from the

perspective of an important

character

• Readers often

understand the main

character better

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First person Narrator

Disadvantages: • The narrator may be

unreliable—insane, naïve,

deceptive, narrow minded

etc...

• Readers see only one

perspective

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“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.  In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.”                    

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

First person Narrator

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2nd Person POV

YouYoursYourYourself

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• A second-person POV is rare

• Uses “you” and talks directly to the reader

2nd Person POV

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Advantages:Readers can get immersed

in the story.

Readers are treated like a character in the story.

Disadvantages:Readers can feel singled-

out.

2nd Person POV

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• “Before each practice begins, make sure you check the court and remove any debris from the playing surface. When your players arrive, check that they have the proper footwear and that they’ve removed any jewelry, which could injure the player wearing the jewelry or another player. Always carry a list of emergency phone numbers for your players, and know where the nearest phone is located. You should also have a first-aid kit, and you might want to take a first-aid course. --Jim Garland, “The Baffled Parent’s

Guide to Great Basketball Drills”

2nd Person POV

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3rd Person POV• Omniscient• Limited

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3rd Person POV

She, hers, him, his, them, they, theirs

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Omniscient:  • godlike narrator; • can enter character's

minds • knows everything that is

going on, past, present, and future.

• May be a narrator outside the text

3rd Person POV: Omniscient

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Advantage:  • very natural

technique• author is, after all,

omniscient regarding his work.

3rd Person POV: Omniscient

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Disadvantage:• not lifelike;

• narrator knows and tells all;

• is truly a convention of literature and can feel artificial

3rd Person POV: Omniscient

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“At dawn, Mae Tuck set out on her horse for the wood at the edge of the village of Treegap. She was going there, as she did once every ten years, to meet her two sons, Miles and Jesse, and she was feeling at ease. At noon time, Winnie Foster, whose family owned the Treegap wood, lost her patience at last and decided to think about running away.”

--Natalie Babbitt, “Tuck Everlasting”

3rd Person POV: Omniscient

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Limited Omniscient

Narrator can see into ONE character’s mind.

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All characters have thought privacy except ONE.

3rd Person POV: Limited Omniscient

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Advantage

Gives the impression that we are very close to the mind of that ONE character, though viewing it from a distance.

3rd Person POV: Limited Omniscient

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Disadvantage

Readers see only one perspective

Can feel artificial or distant to a reader.

3rd Person POV: Limited Omniscient

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• Leslie sat in front of Paul. She had two long, brown pigtails that reached all the way down to her waist. Paul saw those pigtails, and a terrible urge came over him. He wanted to pull a pigtail. He wanted to wrap his fist around it, feel the hair between his fingers, and just yank. He thought it would be fun to tie the pigtails together, or better yet, tie them to her chair. But most of all, he just wanted to pull one.

   --Louis Sachar, “Sideways Stories from Wayward School”

3rd Person POV: Limited Omniscient

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Independent Work

• Book title• Identify what point of view the author of your book uses

and defend how you know that with evidence.

• If you have a 1st person book…– Is your narrator reliable? What affect does their reliability have

on the reader?

• If you have a 3rd person book (omniscient or limited)…– Why does the author use that POV? What affect does that have

for the reader?