The meaning of the word point of view

In philosophy, a point of view is a specific attitude or manner through which a person thinks about something.^[1][2] This figurative usage of the expression dates back to 1760.^[3]
In this meaning, the usage is synonymous with one of the meanings of the term perspective^[4][5] (also epistemic perspective).^[6]

Point of view. Two people are looking at the same object and interpreting it differently due to a different point of view.

The concept of the «point of view» is highly multifunctional and ambiguous. Many things may be judged from certain personal, traditional or moral points of view (as in «beauty is in the eye of the beholder»). Our knowledge about reality is often relative to a certain point of view.^[4]

Vázquez Campos and Manuel Liz Gutierrez suggested to analyse the concept of «point of view» using two approaches: one based on the concept of «propositional attitudes», the other on the concepts of «location» and «access».^[7]

AnalysisEdit

Margarita Vázquez Campos and Antonio Manuel Liz Gutiérrez in their work, «The Notion of Point of View», give a comprehensive analysis of the structure of the concept. They point out that despite being crucial in many discourses, the notion has not been adequately analyzed, though some important works do exist.^[4] They mention that early classical Greek philosophers, starting from Parmenides and Heraclitus discussed the relation between «appearance» and reality, i.e., how our points of view are connected with reality.^[8] They specifically point out Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. They consider Wittgenstein’s theory of «pictures» or «models» (Wittgenstein used the German word Bild, which means both «picture» and «model») as an illustration of the relationship between points of view and reality.^[9]

Propositional attitudesEdit

The internal structure of a point of view may be analysed similarly to the concept of a propositional attitude. A propositional attitude is an attitude, i.e., a mental state held by an agent toward a proposition. Examples of such attitudes are «to believe in something», «to desire something», «to guess something», «to remember something», etc. Vazques Campos and Gutierrez suggest that points of view may be analyzed as structured sets of propositional attitudes.^[10] The authors draw on Christopher Peacocke’s Sense and Content.^[5]

Within this approach one may carry out ontological classification of various distinctions, such as individual vs. collective points of view, personal vs. non-personal, non-conceptual vs. conceptual, etc.^[5]

Location and accessEdit

Whereas propositional attitudes approach to analyze points of view internally, the «location/access» approach analyzes points of view externally, by their role. The term «access» refers to the statement of Liz Gutierrez that «points of views, or perspectives, are ways of having access to the world and to ourselves», and the term «location» is in reference to the provided quotation of Jon Moline that points of view are «ways of viewing things and events from certain locations». Moline rejects the notion that points of view are reducible to some rules based on some theories, maxims or dogmas. Moline considers the concept of «location» in two ways: in a direct way as a vantage point, and in an extended way, the way how a given vantage point provides a perspective, i.e., influences the perception.^[11]

This approach may address epistemological issues, such as relativism, existence of the absolute point of view, compatibility of points of view (including «faultless disagreement»), possibility of a point of view without a bearer, etc.^[5]

See alsoEdit

NotesEdit

ReferencesEdit

• Margarita Vázquez Campos, Antonio Manuel Liz Gutiérrez, «The Notion of Point of View», in: Temporal Points of View: Subjective and Objective Aspects, Springer, 2015, ISBN 3319198157
• Manuel Liz, «Models and Points of View: The Analysis of the Notion of Point of View», in: Lorenzo Magnani (ed.), Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology: Theoretical and Cognitive Issues, Springer Science & Business Media, 2013, ISBN 364237428X

Further readingEdit

• Moore, A., Points of View, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997

External linksEdit

•   Media related to Point of view (philosophy) at Wikimedia Commons
•   Quotations related to Point of view (philosophy) at Wikiquote

One of the best ways to prepare for the AP Literature exam is to learn about different literary devices and how you can use them to analyze everything from poetry to novels. Not only will this help you on the multiple choice section of the test, it’s critical for earning perfect scores on your essays, too!

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at one specific device: point of view. First, we’ll give you the point of view definition, then we’ll explain how the work’s narrator affects its point of view. Then we’ll explain the four types of point of view and provide examples and analysis for each one.

By the end of this article, you’ll be a point of view expert! So let’s get started.

Point of View: Definition and Meaning

In literature and poetry, point of view is defined as the perspective from which a story is told. Put another way, a story’s point of view is a way to articulate and analyze the position of the narrator in relation to the story they’re telling. Is the narrator a participant in the story they’re telling? Or are they describing events that happened to someone else? Both of these perspectives are different types of point of view (which we’ll talk about in a lot more depth later in this article, so hang tight)!

So how do you figure out the point of view in a text? In order to find the point of view of a story, you first have to identify whose perspective the story is told from. That’s because the perspective of the story determines a piece of literature’s point of view! That means that in order to establish a text’s point of view, you have to figure out the narrator of the text first.

What Is a Narrator?

Okay…so obviously figuring out the narrator of a piece of literature is important. But what’s a narrator, exactly? No matter what type of text you’re reading—whether it’s a newspaper article, a textbook, a poem, or a best-selling novel—someone is communicating the story to the reader. In literary terms, we call that someone the text’s narrator.

In other words, the narrator of a piece of literature is the person telling the story. And you know what’s even more helpful than that? Almost all written texts—whether they’re fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or otherwise—have a narrator.

And since a narrator and point of view go hand in hand, that means that almost all texts have a point of view, too!

Finding the Narrator

So how do you figure out the narrator of a text? Sometimes the narrator of a text is pretty easy to determine. For example, for a newspaper article, the narrator of the story is obviously the reporter who’s written the piece to report the facts. They’re the person who followed the story’s trail, and now they’re sharing the story with you!

Another good example of an “easy to find” comes from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The very first sentence of the book reads, “Call me Ishmael.” Because that’s a line in the text rather than a piece of dialogue that uses quotation marks, you know it’s the narrator speaking to the audience. In other words, the narrator of Moby Dick identifies himself and tells you his name in the very first line of the book!

But figuring out the narrator of the text isn’t always that easy. For example, the Harry Potter books by J.K Rowling don’t have an easily identifiable narrator. Neither do some classic works, like The Giver by Lois Lowry or Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. What do you do in those situations? Well, just hang tight: we’ll walk you through how point of view can help you figure out the narrator in these tricky situations!

Narrator vs. Point of View: What’s the Difference?

Before we start really digging into point of view, it’s worth pausing a minute to talk about the differences between point of view and narration. Because narration and point of view are closely linked, it’s tempting to think of them as interchangeable terms.

But the narrator of a text and the point of view of a text are two different things. The narrator is who is telling the story. In contrast, a text’s point of view is the perspective the story is being told from. If you think of the narrator as a person, their point of view is the angle they’re taking on the story.

Think of it this way: in literature, point of view and narrators go together like…well, like thunder and lightning. You can’t have one without the other, but they’re definitely not the same thing.

The 4 Types of Point of View

Okay, let’s look more closely at the four different types of point of view found in literature. In the following sections, we’ll explain each type of point of view, give you tips for figuring out if something is written in that perspective, and then walk you through a real-life example of that point of view in literature.

In first person point of view, you see the story through the narrator’s eyes

First Person Point of View

In first person point of view, the story is told from the narrator’s perspective. This allows the narrator to give readers their first-hand experience, including what they saw, felt, thought, heard, said, and did. Think of it kind of like The Blair Witch Project: in first person point of view, it’s like the narrator is wearing a GoPro camera strapped to their forehead. The reader sees exactly what the narrator sees and gets their singular perspective on the events that unfold. In other words, a first person point of view makes the narrator the eyewitness to the plot of the story.

Using a first person point of view allows an author to dive much more deeply into the narrator’s character, since the reader gets to hear the narrator’s inner thoughts and experience the narrator’s emotions. Additionally, it makes the narrator the main character, or protagonist, of the story. If something is written in first person, it’s a pretty big indicator that the narrator is going to play a pivotal role in communicating the text’s messages or themes.

But there are also some pretty major limitations to a first person point of view, too. Just like real life, readers won’t be able to get the thoughts and feelings of other characters in the novel. Also, the narrator’s observations might be skewed depending on how they feel about other people. Because of that, first person narrators can be unreliable, meaning that their perspective skews the accuracy of the story they’re telling. That means it’s up to the reader to determine whether they believe the narrator is being truthful or not.

Tips for Identifying First Person Point of View

In many ways, a first person point of view is one of the easiest to pick out because it uses first person pronouns, like I, we, me, my, our, and us. If the book is written using these terms, then you can pretty much guarantee that the author is using first person!

Keep in mind that not all first person narrators are the book’s main character, like Moby Dick’s Ishmael or The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen. That’s because first person narrators aren’t always the main characters in the work. Take, for instance, the Sherlock Holmes stories, where Dr. John Watson is the narrator. While he’s an important character in the story, he’s definitely not the main character—Sherlock Holmes is!

Additionally, sometimes first person narrators are anonymous, like third person narrators often are. (Don’t worry: we’ll get into third person narration in just a minute.) That’s why it’s best to look for pronouns when trying to figure out a work’s point of view! If you’re trying to find the narrator’s name, it might not always be there. A good example of this is Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130,” where the narrator is describing the woman he loves. The narrator of the poem is never named, but because he uses pronouns like “I” and “my,” you know it’s written in first person.

Example of First Person Point of View: Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 29”

Many of Shakespeare’s sonnets are written in first person, and “Sonnet 29” is no different. Let’s look at the full poem and see why it qualifies as being written in first person:

Remember, we can tell that something’s written in first person if it uses first person pronouns outside of dialogue. Since there’s no dialogue in this poem at all, we can look at the entire text to find evidence of the first person point of view.  

Notice that the narrator (or speaker, as the narrator is often referred to in poetry) uses words like “I,” “me,” and “myself” throughout the poem. This is a clear indicator that this poem is written in a first person point of view!  

Actually, “Sonnet 29” is a good example of something written in first person where the narrator isn’t named. But we can still learn quite a bit about them through the poem itself! For example, we learn that he’s an outcast (line 2) who is unhappy with his current status (line 4). Despite his all-encompassing misery (line 9), when he thinks upon his love, his spirits are lifted (lines 10, 11, and 12). As we start piecing the evidence together, we begin to get a clearer picture of who the narrator of the poem is, and the power love has to lift us out of even the bleakest circumstance.

Other Works Written in First Person Point of View

First person is a really popular writing technique, so it’s no surprise that there are tons of books written in this point of view! Here are a few other poems, books, and book series that you might be familiar with that use first person point of view:

• Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18”
• Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games book series
• Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
• Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories

Second person point of view uses pronouns like «you» and «your» to tell the story.

Second Person Point of View

In second person point of view, the story is told from the perspective of another character. Sometimes this character is another person in the book, but it can also be the reader themselves! More importantly, when a writer uses second person, they want readers to connect emotionally with the topic they’re writing about!

Here’s an example of what we mean. Say you’re reading an article about the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean. If the writer wants to pull on your heartstrings and make you take the issue they’re writing about seriously, they might use a second person point of view and write something like this:

“Imagine you’re on the vacation of your dreams sailing across the Caribbean. You can’t wait to get out into the open water, where everything will be calm, peaceful, and gorgeous. You take a nap as the captain sets sail, and when you return to the deck, you’re shocked by what you see. Instead of a vast expanse of sparkling blue water, you see a huge, bobbing mound of trash. Fast food containers, plastic bags, and discarded water bottles bob along the surface as far as you can see. It looks like you’re sailing through a garbage dump, and you feel equal parts disgust and despair.”

Using the second person point of view in a passage puts the reader into the story—in this case, it’s a story about pollution. Second person makes the reader feel like they’re making every move…from the joy of going on vacation, to the shock of seeing so much plastic in the water, to the “disgust and despair” of realizing what pollution is doing to the sea. Suddenly, the reader becomes more invested in what the author has to say about the problem, since the second person point of view makes them feel like they’ve experienced it first-hand!

While it’s very rare to find a text that’s written completely in second person, many authors will switch to this perspective when they want readers to feel connected to the topic they’re writing about.

Tips for Identifying Second Person Point of View

Like first person point of view, it’s pretty easy to spot the second person point of view…when you know what you’re looking for, that is. When something is written in second person, the writer uses second person pronouns (like “you,” “yourself,” and “your”) in the text that falls outside of dialogue, too.

Like we just mentioned, it’s pretty rare to find a whole text that’s written this way. More than likely, you’ll find a few paragraphs written in second person, rather than an entire work. The one exception to this rule is the classic Choose Your Own Adventure book! You probably remember these from when you were a kid: each book had a topic, and at the bottom of each page, you were given decisions to make. Depending on what you chose, you’d flip to a different page in the book, and your decisions would affect the story!

Example of Second Person Point of View: Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerny

Jay McInerny uses second person to open his book, Bright Lights, Big City, which tells the story of life in the fast lane in 1980s New York. Let’s look at the first paragraph to see the second person point of view in action:

You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. How did you get here? It was your friend Tad Allagash. Your brain is rushing with Brazilian marching powder. You are talking to a girl with a shaved head. You want to meet the kind of girl who isn’t going to be here. You want to read the kind of fiction this isn’t. You give the girl some powder. She still doesn’t want you. Things were fine once. Then you got married. 

Notice that all the pronouns in this section are either “you” or “your,” which is a clear indicator that this is written in second person! It’s also a good example of how using second person can immediately pull someone into a narrative by making the reader and the main character one in the same. In this case, McInerny is creating a whole backstory for your character—from giving you friends like Tad to hinting at your dysfunctional marriage.

Other Works Written in Second Person Point of View

Second person is probably the rarest of the points of view. Usually writers will use second person in sections of their work to emphasize a point, rather than throughout their entire work. Here are some pieces of literature that use a second person point of view (at least in part):

• Langston Hughes’ “Hard Luck”
• Italo Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller
• Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric
• Emma Campbell Webster’s Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure

In third person omniscient point of view, the narrator is god-like and tells the reader everything!

Third Person Omniscient Point of View

The third type of perspective you can find in literature is a third person omniscient point of view. In third person omniscient, the narrator uses third person pronouns like “he,” “she,” “they,” and “their” to refer to all the characters in the work. As a result, the narrator removes themselves as a critical character in the work (unlike the narrators that use a first or second person point of view).

Additionally, because this is a third person omniscient perspective, the narrator is given god-like qualities over the story. (Merriam-Webster defines an “omniscient” person as someone who has “universal or complete knowledge”!) That means the narrator can dive into any character’s head and share their thoughts and emotions with the reader. Additionally, the narrator can move around in time and place to show the reader events that the characters themselves may not be aware of! That includes jumping around from location to location, or even moving backward and forward in time.

Using a third person omniscient narrator lets an author show the reader the whole gameboard, so to speak. There’s no real limit to what a narrator can show the readers! Consequently, it allows the author to build a robust world full of well-developed characters, since the author no longer has to contend with the single-character limits of a first or second person point of view. It’s also a particularly useful technique in works with large casts of characters, since the narrator can introduce the reader to each character more quickly—and with more detail—than other points of view would allow!

Example of Third Person Omniscient Point of View: Middlemarch by George Eliot

The narrator of George Eliot’s Victorian novel, Middlemarch, is an excellent example of how a third person omniscient narrator can give readers a comprehensive view of a text. Let’s take a look at the book’s opening paragraph to see this type of point of view in action:

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. Her hand and wrist were so finely formed that she could wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painters; and her profile as well as her stature and bearing seemed to gain the more dignity from her plain garments, which by the side of provincial fashion gave her the impressiveness of a fine quotation from the Bible,—or from one of our elder poets,—in a paragraph of to-day’s newspaper. She was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever, but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense. Nevertheless, Celia wore scarcely more trimmings; and it was only to close observers that her dress differed from her sister’s, and had a shade of coquetry in its arrangements; for Miss Brooke’s plain dressing was due to mixed conditions, in most of which her sister shared. The pride of being ladies had something to do with it: the Brooke connections, though not exactly aristocratic, were unquestionably «good:» if you inquired backward for a generation or two, you would not find any yard-measuring or parcel-tying forefathers—anything lower than an admiral or a clergyman; and there was even an ancestor discernible as a Puritan gentleman who served under Cromwell, but afterwards conformed, and managed to come out of all political troubles as the proprietor of a respectable family estate. Young women of such birth, living in a quiet country-house, and attending a village church hardly larger than a parlor, naturally regarded frippery as the ambition of a huckster’s daughter. 

Remember: omniscient narrators are god-like in that they can give you more information than a single character could provide from their limited perspective. In this case, Eliot’s omniscient narrator gives us tons of information about Miss Brooke. We know that she’s beautiful but not financially well off ( the narrator calls this living in “mixed conditions”), which is reflected in her “plain garments.” Regardless, Miss Brooke is also “remarkably clever.”

Beyond that, the narrator tells us about Miss Brooke’s family by looking into her past—which is easy given that the narrator is omniscient! We learn that she and her sister, Celia, aren’t aristocratic, but they come from a good family that includes admirals, clergymen, and politicians. This helps Eliot develop characters and situations quickly, which is important in a book with a large cast of characters like Middlemarch.

Other Works Written in Third Person Omniscient Point of View

Third person omniscient is a common point of view, especially in longer texts. Here are some examples of other works that feature an omniscient point of view:

• Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women
• Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
• Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
• Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

In third person limited point of view, it’s as if the narrator is standing behind one character’s shoulder.

Third Person Limited Point of View

Example of Third Person Limited Point of View: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Like we mentioned earlier, all texts have a point of view…which means that the Harry Potter stories do, too! Let’s look at a passage from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to get a better idea of how a third person limited point of view works. In this scene, Harry and his friends, Hermione and Ron, are looking through the library to learn more about the sorcerer’s stone:

Hermione took out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn’t somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he’d never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

Other Works Written in Third Person Limited Point of View

The third person limited point of view is a popular perspective for writers to use, so there’s no shortage of examples! Here are a few works you might be familiar with that feature a third person limited point of view:

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Christabel”
• Eudora Welty’s The Golden Apples
• Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
• Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time

 

What’s Next?

If you’re studying for the AP Literature exam, you’ll need to know about more literary devices than point of view. Why not check out our other comprehensive guides, like this one on personification? The more familiar you are with literary terms, what they mean, and how to use them, the better your test score will be!

Did you know that there are two English AP tests? One is the literature exam, which focuses on literary analysis and comprehension. The second test is the language exam, which tests your ability to understand argument and write persuasively. Click here to learn more about the AP Language exam, how it differs from the literature exam, and what you need to do to knock it out of the park!

After you learn the fundamentals, the best way to prepare for an AP exam is to take practice tests. Check out this article on how to find the best AP practice exams, and learn how to use them to boost your score!

Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article!

Examples of a second-person point of view can be found in the work of Dr. Seuss.

Definition of Point of View

Point of view is utilized as a literary device to indicate the angle or perspective from which a story is told. Essentially, point of view refers to the “eyes” of the narrative voice that determine the position or angle of vision from which the story is being relayed. Point of view is one of the most crucial choices made by fiction writers since it governs the reader’s access to the story and determines how much the reader is able to know at any given moment with regard to what is taking place in the narrative.

For example, Gregory Maguire is well-known for his novels that re-tell famous stories using a different point of view. In his work Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, the story of Cinderella is told by one of the “ugly stepsisters” herself, rather than a removed fairy tale narrator.

In the lives of children, pumpkins turn into coaches, mice and rats turn into men. When we grow up, we realize it is far more common for men to turn into rats.

By shifting the viewpoint of the narrative voice, the reader is given an entirely different perspective and version of the famous story. This not only makes for an engaging and innovative experience for the reader, but the change in point of view also changes the story itself by presenting otherwise “unseen” information and opinions.

Examples of Commonly Used Points of View

As a literary device, point of view is generally expressed through the use of pronouns. Each has its advantages and limitations. First and third person points of view are far more common than second person point of view in literature. First person narrative allows the writer to establish intimacy with the reader by allowing access to the narrator’s inner thoughts. Third person narrative is flexible in that the writer can focus on more than one character’s actions and thoughts.

Here are some examples of commonly used points of view:

First Person

In first person point of view, one of the story’s characters is narrating the literary work. This viewpoint is indicated by the use of first person pronouns, including “I,” and the reader assumes that the character is close to the story’s action. First person narrative voice provides the reader an intimate and close look into a character’s thoughts, but the perspective of the story is limited by what the character is able to see and know.

Here are some well-known examples of literary works with first person point of view:

• The Great Gatsby
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Jane Eyre
• The Yellow Wallpaper
• moby dick

Third Person

With third person point of view, there is a narrative presence telling the story and referring to the characters in the third person, as “he” or “she.” Third person point of view can be omniscient, meaning the narrator can see and know everything within the story, or limited, meaning the narrator is restricted in what they see and know of the story.

Here are some well-known examples of literary works with third person point of view:

• Beloved
• Lord of the Flies
• Little Women
• Fahrenheit 451
• The Lowland

Second Person

Second person point of view utilizes the pronoun “you” to address the reader and bring them into the action of the story. However, second person point of view is problematic in a couple of ways. First, it is a stylistic choice that is uncommon, especially in novel-length works. In addition, second person point of view can overwhelm the writer and confuse and/or alienate the reader. Most writers avoid constructing a narrative voice through second person point of view.

Difference Between Omniscient and Third Person Limited Point of View

Third person point of view is flexible as a literary device in that a writer can choose between omniscient or limited perspectives for the narrator. An omniscient narrator is aware of and knows everything about the story and its characters. There are no limitations for this narrator in terms of expressing any character’s thoughts, and this includes their own opinions and observations. An omniscient point of view features a narrator who knows more than the characters of a story.

A third person limited narrator utilizes third person storytelling, but is closely “assigned” to one character. Therefore, this limited narrator shares access with the reader to a character’s thoughts, feelings, experiences, etc., but is limited in doing so with other characters in the story. Writers choose third person limited point of view to create a deeper bond between a specific character and the reader.

Writing with Point of View

Writers decide who tells a story and the intended audience for it. When determining point of view as a literary device, the story can be told from the viewpoint of a character who is part of the story or from a narrative perspective that “sees” and knows the characters but is not one of them. It’s important for writers to consider benefits and limitations when deciding point of view, as it is essential for character development and the relationship between the narrative voice and the reader.

In addition, it’s important for writers to establish point of view as soon as possible for the reader so they are aware of whose perspective they are following. Though some writers choose to change point of view, done most often within a novel, the narrative voice should be consistent throughout a particular scene. Otherwise, disrupting the narrative perspective in the middle of a story’s action can be confusing and jarring for the reader. Changing the point of view for a subplot, alternate section, or different chapter of a literary work can be valuable; however, there should be continuity of narrative throughout the course of a story’s scene in consideration of the reader.

Alternating Point of View

Alternating point of view is a complex type of observation or narration. While narrating, he/she can change their position from the first person to the third person or even second person. It depends on the setting, situation, and voice of the characters and their different perspectives. This technique was used very successfully by Kurt Vonnegut or Italo Calvino in their novels with authorial assertion and intervention, such as Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Also, the alternating point of view is used for long narration or a chapter-wise, to develop characters and story. It is not used for one sentence or a paragraph.

First Person Point of View as a Protagonist and Common Character

The first person point of view uses first-person pronouns. I, me, mine, etc. The first-person point of view is mostly used in fiction, autobiographies, or semi-autobiographies. The person speaking becomes the center point of the narrative, thus becoming a protagonist of the story most of the time. However, sometimes this person is also a typical narrator when it comes to the big events or significant happenings in history. Such a first-person narrator takes part only as a commoner but describes all the major events and characters through him/her. Usually, they paint the picture of a person, presenting him/her as a protagonist and himself as an ordinary character. Fiction usually adapts this form of narration when they use great heroes from history as protagonists.

Use of Point of View in Sentences

1. He loves to people from the window of his castle. But, such is his life; he is not allowed to step outside. (Third-person point of view)
2. I heard a shrill cry followed by speeding footsteps. I wondered if someone was in trouble. Sadly when I reached the alley, there was no one. (First-person point of view)
3. This is how you prepare a tasty lemonade. You juice the lemons, and you can get more juice by rolling the lemons on the counter using force. (Second-person point of view)
4. Although Jay viewed the group with suspicion when he decided to meet them and said, “I do not suspect you in any way, but we still need to talk.” (Third-person objective point of view)
5. As the children settled into their rooms, Lisa hoped they would sleep peacefully without fear. She silently wished them goodnight before closing the door.”

Examples of Point of View in Literature

Example 1: Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)

I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest. Or when, even as just now I’ve tried to articulate exactly what I felt to be the truth. No one was satisfied.

In Ellison’s novel, the protagonist tells his own story from a first-person point of view. This passage reflects both the power of this narrative perspective and its limitations. By telling his own story, the protagonist is able to have a close connection with the reader and directly express his true thoughts, feelings, and ideas. However, due to this restricted form of narration, the reader must rely solely on the viewpoint of the protagonist. This puts a level of responsibility on the reader to determine whether the protagonist is reliable in his narration and to fill in any gaps in the story that are ambiguous or unaddressed in a full manner by the narrator.

Example 2: The Story of an Hour (Kate Chopin)

She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

Chopin’s short story is told through a third-person limited point of view. The narrative perspective is that of Louise Mallard, the protagonist of the story, though she does not relay the narrative herself in the first person. Instead, the narrator relays to the reader Louise’s actions, thoughts, and feelings as she learns of her husband’s supposed death. This is a clever literary choice due to the fact that Louise spends much of her time in the story in a room alone, away from the other characters.

Chopin establishes a relationship between the third-person narrator and the reader in terms of access to Louise’s mind. This is reflected in the passage as the narrator conveys to the reader that Louise feels “free” at the news of her husband’s death. This “freedom” is something that Louise would not have expressed to any character in the story, yet the narrative perspective allows the reader to know and understand her thoughts.

Example 3: The Death of Ivan Ilych (Leo Tolstoy)

In reality it was just what is usually seen in the houses of people of moderate means who want to appear rich, and therefore succeed only in resembling others like themselves: there are damasks, dark wood, plants, rugs, and dull and polished bronzes — all the things people of a certain class have in order to resemble other people of that class. His house was so like the others that it would never have been noticed, but to him it all seemed to be quite exceptional.

Tolstoy’s well-known story of Ivan Ilych is told through an omniscient point of view. This passage reflects that the omniscient narrator governs the telling of the story through the information that is presented to the reader and the manner in which that information is relayed. For example, the omniscient narrator describes for the reader the setting of the character’s home by describing the objects inside. This creates an image that allows the reader to picture the scene.

However, the omniscient narrator is also characterizing the setting of the home by inserting opinions about it with phrases such as “who want to appear rich.” This is important because the omniscient narrator’s description and the inserted characterization influences both the reader’s literal image of the scene and their perception of its meaning in terms of an emotional response. As a result, the omniscient narrator holds the power to influence all aspects of a story for a reader–not just the way things look or what events take place, but how the reader should feel about it, Therefore, in response to an omniscient narrator, the reader should be aware of this effect so as to approach this point of view with critical thinking.

Synonyms of Point of View

Some of the words close to the point of view in meanings are opinion, view, attitude, feeling, sentiment, thoughts, ideas, position, perspective, viewpoint, standpoint, outlook, stand, stance, side, or position.

I

am, you are, she is, they will be — these are all things we say on a near-daily basis, and they’re all examples of different points of view. But what is point of view within storytelling and how can writers use it strategically? We’re going to explain everything you need to know about point of view in literature, with cinema and video game examples as well. But first let’s review the basics.

What is Point of View to Anakin?

Making of Hardcore Henry

Describe Point of View in the Second Person

What is Point of View in the Third Person?

First Person vs. Second Person vs. Third Person

It’s worth experimenting with different points of view, even just as an exercise. By understanding how different POVs are used, we’re better prepared to write the strongest story possible.

Last Updated:
13 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

Point of view is the perspective from which a speaker or writer recounts a narrative or presents information. Also known as a viewpoint.

Depending on the topic, purpose, and audience, writers of nonfiction may rely on the first-person point of view (I, we), the second-person (you, your, you’re), or the third-person (he, she, it, they).

Author Lee Gutkind points out that point of view is «innately tied to voice, and a strong, well-executed point of view will also lead to a strong voice» (Keep It Real, 2008).

Examples and Observations

«Point of view is the place from which a writer listens in and watches. Choosing one place over another determines what can and can’t be seen, what minds can and can’t be entered. . . .

«The main choice, of course, is between the third and first person, between a disembodied voice and ‘I’ (in nonfiction synonymous with the author). For some, the choice is made before sitting down to write. Some writers feel obliged to use the third person, by tradition the voice of objectivity, the disinterested mode of address appropriate for the newspaper or for history. Other writers, by contrast, seem to adopt the first person as a reflex, even if they are not writing autobiographically. But choosing a point of view really is a choice fundamental to the construction of nonfiction narratives, thus carrying relevant consequences. No moral superiority inheres in the first or third person, in their many varieties, but the wrong choice can deaden a story or distort it enough to turn it into a lie, sometimes a lie composed of facts.»
(Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd, Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction. Random House, 2013)

Subjective and Objective Viewpoints

«Pronouns reflect the various viewpoints. You can choose first-person (I, me, us, our), second person (you), or third person (he, she, they, their). First-person is considered intense, subjective, and emotionally hot. It is the natural choice for a memoir, autobiography, and most personal-experience essays. The reader is the center of attention for second-person. It is the favored point of view for instructional material, advice, and sometimes admonishment! It is intimate without being intense—unless the ‘voice’ of the author is authoritarian or controlling instead of instructive. . . .

«Third person can be subjective or objective. For instance, when used for an ‘as told to’ personal-experience essay, third-person is subjective and warm. When used for news and information, third-person is objective and cool.» (Elizabeth Lyon, A Writer’s Guide to Nonfiction. Perigee, 2003)

The First-Person Narrator

«It’s hard to write a memoir or a personal essay without falling back on the ‘I.’ In fact, all nonfiction is really told in the technical first-person point of view: there is always a narrator doing the telling, and the narrator is not some fictional persona but the author.

«This single point of view is one of the important—and frustrating—hallmarks that distinguishes nonfiction from fiction.

«Yet there are ways to mimic other points of view—and thereby to tell a more natural sort of story.

«Listen to the opening lines of Daniel Bergner’s God of the Rodeo: ‘When he had finished work—building fence or penning cattle or castrating bull calves with a knife supplied by his boss on the prison farm—Johnny Brooks lingered in the saddle shed. The small cinder-block building is near the heart of Angola, Louisiana’s maximum-security state penitentiary. Alone there, Brooks placed his saddle on the wooden rack in the middle of the room, leapt onto it, and imagined himself riding in the inmate rodeo coming up in October.’

«No sign yet of the author—a strictly third-person presentation. . . . The author won’t enter the story directly for many more lines; he’ll duck in once to let us know he’s there and then disappear for long stretches . . ..

«But in fact, of course, the author has been with us in every line, in the second way that an author participates in a nonfiction story: tone.» (Philip Gerard, «Talking Yourself Out of the Story: Narrative Stance and the Upright Pronoun.» Writing Creative Nonfiction, ed. by Carolyn Forché and Philip Gerard. Writer’s Digest Books, 2001)

Point of View and Persona

«[T]hese issues of point of view really point to one of the most fundamental skills in creative nonfiction, to writing not as the ‘author’ but from a constructed persona, even if that persona is taking on the ‘I’ to tell the story. That persona is formed by time, mood, and distance from the events that are being narrated. And if we decide to foreground the artifice of this construction by using more stylized points of view, such as second- or third-person, we create even more of a relationship between the narrator and the narrated, a high awareness that we are engaged in the reconstruction of experience and not pretending to be mere transcribers of that experience.» (Lee Gutkind and Hattie Fletcher Buck, Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction. W.W. Norton, 2008)

Obi-Wan Kenobi on Point of View

Obi-Wan: So, what I told you was true . . . from a certain point of view.

Luke: A certain point of view?

Obi-Wan: Luke, you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.

(Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi, 1983)