Point of View Chart
Terms
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- Stream of Consciousness: Reliability
- reliable unless character's thoughts are random, immature, or fantastic
- Stream of Consciousness: Use in Modern Fiction
- frequent in modern fiction
- Third Person Limited Omniscient: Consciousness
- access to consciousness of one character
- First Person:Use in Modern Fiction
- frequently used
- First Person: Position and Presence
- told through the eyes of the main character, minor character, or outside observer
- Stream of Consciousness: Consciousness
- unbroken flow of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings in mind
- Third Person Objective or Impersonal: Reliability
- reliable as narrator describes, "shows", or reports the action in dramatic scenes
- Stream of Consciousness: Position and Presence
- narrator records in detail what passes through character's awareness; narrator doesn't intervene or interpret
- Third Person Limited Omniscient: Other Features
- 1. fosters illusions of reality 2. allows author comments 3. provides intimacy between reader and narrator 4. provides structural unity 5. combines scope of omniscient and immediacy of first person narration
- First Person: Reliability
- Narrator reliable when observer is used, but may not be reliable when told by character. Narrator may be naive or biased
- Third Person Objective or Impersonal: Position and Presence
- seen through the eyes of an outside observer
- Third Person Omniscient: Consciousness
- access to consciousness of more than one character, perhaps all
- Third Person Omniscient: Other Features
- 1. allows great scope and flexibility 2. permits author intrusions,editorializing, evaluations, and comments 3. more reliable than first person perspective
- Third Person Limited Omniscient: Position and Presence
- seen through the eyes of an outside observer, protagonist, or minor character whose presence dominates
- Stream of Consciousness: Voice
- third person pronouns
- Third Person Omniscient: Reliability
- If observer is used or if speaker is not emotionally involved with story or character
- First Person: Consciousness
- Access to narrator's consciousness
- Third Person Omniscient: Use in Modern Fiction
- Used often
- First Person: Voice
- Narrator uses first person pronouns (I, my, mine, we, our, us)
- Third Person Objective or Impersonal: Other Features
- 1. reliable as narrator merely reports without introducing his own comments or judgements 2. leaves much interpretation to the reader 3. restricted-little intimacy 4. also called "the fly on the wall technique"
- Third Person Limited Omniscient: Reliability
- when observer is used; less so when character used or narrator intrudes or comments
- Third Person Objective or Impersonal: Use in Modern Fiction
- Infrequently used
- Third Person Limited Omniscient: Voice
- third person pronouns
- Third Person Objective or Impersonal: Consciousness
- little to no access to character's consciousness
- Third Person Limited Omniscient: Use in Modern Fiction
- Frequently used
- First Person: Other Features
- 1. fosters illusions of reality 2. allows author comments 3. establishes intimate relationship between reader and narrator 4. provides structural unity 5. because of subjectivity, may be less reliable
- Third Person Omniscient: Position and Presence
- seen through the eyes of outside observer, whose presence is pervasive
- Third Person Omniscient: Voice
- mostly third person pronouns (he, she); first person rarely
- Stream of Consciousness: Other Features
- 1. presents an unbroken flow of perceptions, thoughts,and feelings in the waking mind 2. relies heavily on dialogue either interior or exterior 3. little action
- Third Person Objective or Impersonal: Voice
- third person