Perspective and Point of View What is Perspective

Perspective… …and Point of View

What is Perspective? • www. dictionary. com defines perspective as “a mental view or outlook”

How does perspective connect to literature? Point of View!

What is point of view? • The perspective from which the story is told. • 4 points of view in literature

st 1 person (I, we) • Relates events as they are perceived by a single character • One main character “tells” the story and offers opinions about the action and other characters. – These opinions may differ from the author’s!

nd 2 person (you) • Author tells the story as if it is happening to the reader

rd 3 Person Omniscient (he, she, they) • The narrator is “allknowing” and entirely outside of the story’s events • Author can tell us anything that occurs anywhere, any time within the story, including any character's thoughts

3 rd Person Limited (he, she, they) • Presents the events of a story from the perspective of only one character • No special insight into other characters’ minds or motivations

Which point of view? 1. “I had waited so long for my dogs, and I so desperately wanted to see them and hold them. ”

Which point of view? “The fight had been terrible. Erin knew she had been right to confront her mother, but a small part of her wished that she hadn’t. What if things never went back to normal? ” 2.

Which point of view? 3. “The fight had been terrible. Erin knew she had been right to confront her mother, but a small part of her wished that she hadn’t. Little did she know that her mom felt the same way about the argument. ”

Which point of view? 4. You creep slowly into the dark mouth of the cave. Your heart is pounding; your palms are sweating. You close your eyes and try to calm yourself. You wonder if you will make it back out alive.