Short Story Terms - Point of View

POINT OF VIEW

point of view - the perspective from which a story is told.  Each narrator has his or her particular perspective.  By defining the narrator as thoroughly as possible, you will define the story's point of view

narrator - the person telling the story

first-person narrator - a narrator who appears in the story, either as a participant or merely as an observer.  A first person narrator is a character in the story. As observer - witnesses the action from its fringes, usually a minor character.  As participant - involved in the events he or she relays, often the protagonist of the story

unreliable narrator - a narrator whose point of view clearly distorts the story he or she is telling

third-person narration - a narrator who does not appear as a character in the story, has no persona often and the author expects readers to accept his or her narration as objective fact undistorted by personal perspective

omniscient narrator - a third-person narrator from whom no information is hidden, knows the thoughts of all characters

limited omniscience - a third-person narrator who knows more than a first-person narrator could know, but whose knowledge is still limited, usually to the thoughts of one or two characters

stream of consciousness - a technique of narration that attempts to reproduce the succession of thoughts, sensory impressions, memories and so on that pass through a character's mind