Unit: Point of View

Introduction

In this unit we will examine point of view. The perspective from which the story is told is a key facet of narrative.

“In telling a story, who tells it is of paramount importance” (Bohner and Grant 15).

Narrator

“Choosing a narrative point of view is perhaps the most important and most difficult decision a writer of a story makes. Point of view—like plot, character, setting, and language—is a creative decision; however, it is also a very much a technical decision” (Bohner and Grant 15).

“Someone has to tell the story. That someone is called the narrator. But the question is who will that narrator be and what does the narrator know” (Bohner and Grant 15).

Mediation

Drama and film unfold directly before our eyes. In narrative fiction there is always something (a viewer, a speaker, both) between the reader and the action: a point of view other than our own has already been imposed. This is mediation.

Point of view involves the angle of vision (the point of view from which the people, events, and other details are viewed). This view is called the focus. The words of the story lying between the reader and the story is the voice.

Focus Focus acts like a camera. It chooses what we can look at, the angle at which we can view it, and how it is framed. In this case, a tv screen vs. a movie screen. Details and emphasis change depending upon the frame and the focus in both text and film.

Angles in film

Film can help us to understand point of view if we think of the camera eye as our mediator in the text.

The picture above is a low angle shot. The figures seem to loom above us. They are given an aura of importance or power. Imagine a story told from the point of view of a child or someone who is less powerful than those surrounding him. The relationship of the narrator to