Lesson 28 — Activity 2: More about Characters and Point of View in the Novel
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Lesson 28 — Activity 2: More about Characters and Point of View in the Novel
How do we learn about the characters in a novel or short story?
Authors have various ways of having readers learn more about the people in their writing. They may use:
Direct presentation — sometimes a writer will tell you directly what a character is like or feeling.
"The player was very unhappy with losing the soccer game."
In this sentence, the author is telling the reader about how the player felt about losing the game. She was very unhappy.
Indirect presentation — sometimes a writer will tell you about a character through the character’s actions, words, or the character’s interaction with others in the story.
"The player left the soccer game with slumped shoulders and a frown on her face."
In this sentence, the author is showing that the player is unhappy by describing her body and her facial expression.
Authors have various ways of having readers learn more about the people in their writing. They may use:
Direct presentation — sometimes a writer will tell you directly what a character is like or feeling.
"The player was very unhappy with losing the soccer game."
In this sentence, the author is telling the reader about how the player felt about losing the game. She was very unhappy.
Indirect presentation — sometimes a writer will tell you about a character through the character’s actions, words, or the character’s interaction with others in the story.
"The player left the soccer game with slumped shoulders and a frown on her face."
In this sentence, the author is showing that the player is unhappy by describing her body and her facial expression.
Of course, to present this information, the author has to decide who will tell the story. Remember that the person telling the story is the narrator, but the narrator is not necessarily the same person as the author.
Writers commonly use several types of narrators or narrative points of view to tell their stories. Examples of these types of narrators are below.
Writers commonly use several types of narrators or narrative points of view to tell their stories. Examples of these types of narrators are below.
- First person — This type of narrator is a character in the story and tells the story from his or her point of view. The term "first person" means that the narrator uses words such as I, me, my, myself, we, and us to tell the story; the narrator also has a part in the story.
- Second person — The story is written as if the reader was one of the characters and is the "you" referred to in the story.
- Third person — This type of narrator tells the story, but is not participating in the story. The term "third person" means that the narrator uses words such as he, she, him, her, they, and them to tell the story. It is like the narrator is watching the story rather than taking part in the story.
Third person narrative points of view are of several types:
- Objective — The objective narrator tells the story as though he or she is watching the events take place. This narrator can tell us what the characters say and do, but does not tell the reader what the characters are thinking.
- Omniscient — The omniscient narrator tells the story as though he or she knows a great deal about what most or all of the characters think as well as what they say and do.
- Limited omniscient — The limited omniscient narrator tells the story as though he or she knows everything that one character thinks, says, and does — as though the narrator is inside the character. However, this narrator is "limited" to one character; he or she knows only what the other characters say and do, but not what they think.