Narration and Point of View
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Working Definitions
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NARRATION: Simply put, narration is the way in which a story is told. This involves point of view, the dramatization of the voice of the speaker, narrative pacing, as well as narrator reliability. Students should be aware that in works of fiction and poetry the narration is typically not to be understood as the voice of the author but rather a voice that has been created by the author to establish a purposeful effect. |
Examples:
Click for narrator Holden Caulfield, Catcher in the Rye.
Click for narrator Gregg Heffley, Diary of a Wimpy Kid
POINT OF VIEW: The vantage point from which a writer tells a story. There are three main points of view: first person, limited third person, and omniscient third person.
In the first-person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story. Using the pronoun "I", this narrator tells us his or her own experiences but cannot reveal the private thoughts of other characters. When we read a story told in the first person, we hear and see only what the narrator hears and sees. We may have to interpret what this narrator says because a first-person narrator may or may not be objective, honest, or perceptive. Both Catcher in the Rye and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are told from the first-person point of view.
In the limited-third-person point of view, the narrator is outside the story—like an omniscient narrator—but tells the story from the vantage point of only one character. The narrator can enter the mind of this chosen character but cannot tell what any other characters are thinking except by observation. This narrator also can go only where the chosen character goes. 
In the omniscient (or “all-knowing”) point of view, the person telling the story knows everything that’s going on in the story. This omniscient narrator is outside the story, a godlike observer who can tell us what all the characters are thinking and feeling, as well as what is happening anywhere in the story. NEXT: Voice, Style, and Identity
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