POINT OF VIEW

 

 

* * * FIRST PERSON * * *

 

 

 

ADVANTAGES:

 

Immediacy           the first-person narrator is an "eye-witness" who brings us a first-hand report of an event.

 

 

Authority             as an "eye-witness" the narrator's account tends toward credibility.

 

Focus                     the "eye-witness" focuses the material through his/her own impressions.

 

Voice                      the "eye-witness" uses language in a highly personal way.

 

 

 

DISADVANTAGES:

 

Distance                the first-person narrator may be too close to the events described to be objective or fair. Or credible and reliable.

 

Show/tell                  the narrator may be too easily led to babble about vague genneralities rather than painting a picture.

 

Limited knowledge      the narrator cannot know anything for certain except what happens to him or her first-hand.

 

Limited language         the "voice" of the story depends on the narrator's ability to speak or write.

 

 * * * * THIRD PERSON * * *

 

THIRD PERSON -- CAMERA EYE

 

 

ADVANTAGES:

 

Dramatic/scenic the "objective" style forces the writer to render scenes in description and dialogue -- Hemingway's stories.

 

Freedom               the writer is free to move about from one set of charcters to another or one scene to another.

 

Detachment         the authorial "voice" and narration stand back from the action from a detached perspective.

 

 

DISADVANTAGES:

 

No inner vision   the writer does not allow him or herself access to the characters' thoughts or feelings, no interior monologue.

 

Focus                     the writer has a greater difficulty in presenting a single character to the reader as the most important.

 

Involvement        the "exterior" vision tends to be "cool," to thwart reader involvement and identification with the charcters.

 

 

 

THIRD PERSON -- CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE

 

ADVANTAGES:

 

Focus                     the writer uses the perspective of the protagonist to organize the sensory impression/descriptions and the flow of events about a single consciousness.

 

Flexibility             the writer is still free to depart briefly from the protagonist's pov to another character's if needed.

 

Voice                      the "voice" of the story will be colored by the language appropriate to the protagonist's sensibility.

 

Drama                   the story is free to develop dramatic scenes in the manner of camera eye only from a single, unified perspective.

 

 

DISADVANTAGES:

 

Limited view       like the problem in first-person, the narration must or should keep for the most part to a single character.

 

Limited knowledge      the narration coming from one protagonist cannot veer too sharply away from that to another character.

 

Voice                      the limitations of the protagonist's sensibilities will also be those of the story's voice.

 

 

 

THIRD PERSON -- OMNISCIENT

 

 

ADVANTAGES:

 

Free perspective the author is free to roam at will among all the "minds" in the story.

 

Free motion          the author is free to move about in space and time wherever chosen without regard to a single unifying charcter or consciousness.

 

 

DISADVANTAGE:

 

Focus                     the writer who allows no limits as to either the characters' minds or the settings runs the risk of losing a focus on the material so that the reader has no "guide" through the experience or a sense of who and what is most important.