So far, we`ve mostly discussed a story`s perspective, including how storytellers can (and should!) write from the protagonist`s limited perspective. Does this also apply to poetry? If you`re just starting out, I encourage you to use the first-person or third-person point of view, as they`re easy to understand. If you`re planning to write a book or screenplay one day, this perspective could help you sell your work by getting people to embrace this new world you`ve created. Note: “The Waste Land” is an extremely complex poem. Literary critics and historians still debate the many different meanings of the poem, and the poem itself is best read alongside T. S. Eliot`s marginalia. This analysis does not provide a complete understanding of the poem, but if you are interested, this summary of the poem by critic Dr. Oliver Tearle might enlighten you. Point of view: Point of view is the perspective from which something is seen.
When three people see an accident, each person has their own version of what happened, depending on where the person was at the time it happened. Other first-person examples can be found in these popular novels: Everyone has a point of view. Whether conservative or liberal, religious or atheist, no one can escape the perspective to which he clings in everyday life. Let`s say your novel is about a strained relationship between two family members. You decided to focus on the difficult relationship between a teenage girl and her mother. Would it be better to say it from the point of view of the daughter or the mother? If you are writing autobiographical fiction and you come from the daughter`s point of view, you can try to tell your story from the mother`s point of view. This would discourage you from investing too personally in one point of view over the other. Could the mother`s point of view work? Let`s say the mother tends to be a bit short-sighted? This could be reflected in the things she notices and says. You might have a case of unconscious irony and, to the extent that the mother doesn`t seem aware of her own prejudices, etc., perhaps (if you use the first-person perspective) an unreliable narrator – at least sometimes. Remember that choosing your protagonist is a matter of choosing a perspective, a point of view about yourself and others. Other POV signs are of course possible, but they would be secondary.
And above all, do not change your point of view. If you do, you threaten the trust of your readers and could destroy the architecture of your story. For example, Gregory Maguire is known for his novels that tell famous stories from a different angle. In her work Confessions of an Ugly Half-Sister, the story of Cinderella is told by one of the “ugly half-sisters” himself and not by a distant storyteller. In Ellison`s novel, the protagonist tells his own story from the first-person perspective. This passage reflects both the power of this narrative perspective and its limitations. By telling their own story, the protagonist is able to make a close connection with the reader and directly express their true thoughts, feelings, and ideas. However, because of this limited narrative form, the reader must rely exclusively on the protagonist`s point of view.
This places a certain level of responsibility on the reader to determine whether the protagonist is reliable in his narrative and to fill in any gaps in the story that are ambiguous or not fully addressed by the narrator. In a discussion, argument or non-fiction, a point of view is an opinion on a topic. This is not the kind of viewpoint we will focus on in this article (although it is useful for non-fiction authors, and for more information, I recommend reading Wikipedia`s neutrality policy). However, most stories rarely present their protagonists so easily, and it is much more likely that the narrative perspective will develop alongside the story. In my experience as an editor, point of view problems are among the biggest mistakes made by new writers, and they immediately undermine readers` credibility and trust. However, the view is not simple, because there are so many choices: first person, limited third person, omniscient third person, second person. For example, let`s say your story is about a bank robbery. Let`s say you have a protagonist in mind, the one who will be your point of view: the bank robber who planned the robbery. Should you stick with this character, or would another POV character work better? Who could it be? One of the bank robbers? Which one? A persistent killer who will stop at nothing? A beginner who is nervous? A thief with a dashboard full of thefts he has committed, the one who will make it his last flight? What about the driver of the getaway car? From a third-person perspective, there is a narrative presence that tells the story and refers to characters in the third person, such as “he” or “she.” The third-person perspective can be omniscient, meaning the narrator can see and know everything in the story, or limited, meaning the narrator is limited in what they see and know about the story. The point of view is one of the most important aspects of a story. This is what determines everything from who your protagonist is to what the reader knows about him and his world.
The point of view you choose for your story has a significant impact on how readers engage with it, and can even determine whether or not they finish it. For example, the identity of the narrator in Margaret Atwood`s The Handmaid`s Tale is never revealed. The TV series calls her June, based on her interpretation of the first chapter of the story, but the original novel never reveals her real name. She is simply Offred or “von Fred” – Fred is the commander she possesses. Nevertheless, the reader learns about the narrator`s past life, the current dilemma, and the ongoing trauma as a maid in Gilead`s fiction. Limited to the third person means that the thoughts of a single character are revealed at a given time, while containing information about what the other characters are thinking and doing. Luckily for us, however, we figured out what they all are, so we don`t have any accidents with our stories! Chopin`s short story is told from the point of view of a third person. The narrative perspective is that of Louise Mallard, the protagonist of the story, although she does not transmit the narrative herself in the first person.
Instead, the narrator conveys Louise`s actions, thoughts, and feelings to the reader when she learns of her husband`s supposed death. This is a wise literary decision, as Louise spends much of her time in the story in a room alone, away from the other characters. The omniscient third-person perspective offers a fascinating and detailed way to tell your story. There are some essential differences between the point of view of a story and the point of view in poetry.
