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Point of View: Difference between revisions
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The [[Point of View]] of a book is the type of narration a writer uses to convey a story to the reader. There are several types:
* '''First Person Narration:''' I, me, we, us. A story told in 1st-person is written as if the [[Sympathetic POV]] were narrating directly to the reader. We get to know this narrator very well, but are limited by the fact that we can't see what the narrator doesn't. If something important is happening on the other side of the world and there's no way to get the narrator there, then it can't be witnessed first-hand; they'll have to hear about it from somebody else after the fact. Furthermore, this opens up the possibility of an [[Unreliable Narrator]]: a narrator who isn't telling the truth, either due to [[Innocent Inaccurate|lack of awareness]] ("Why do people always react to me like that??") or deliberate lying. In addition, it also raises the question of how the narrator remembered the events in such detail, down to the exact dialogue, unless they explicitly have photographic memory. In a first-person story, the narrator is normally the main character; aversions are covered by the trope [[First-Person Peripheral Narrator]]. See ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', ''[[
** Note that this is different from a story with a [[Narrator]] in it. If a character is talking about what happened to [[Winnie the Pooh|Pooh Bear]], he's a Narrator. If the character doing the talking ''is'' Pooh Bear, it's 1st-Person.
* '''[[Second Person Narration]]:''' you. The story is told ''about'' the reader, who is addressed as if s/he were [[No Fourth Wall|a character in the story]] ("You dashed your drink across Sam's face, offended that he would even suggest such a thing"). Rarely used outside of dialogue, bad fanfic and [[Interactive Fiction]] stories: it gets taxing in long doses, and, well... What if that's not what the reader would actually ''do'' in this situation? Putting words in the reader's mouth that way can kill the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]]. 2nd-person can try to to compensate by making the reader an [[AFGNCAAP]], but that doesn't always work either (in addition to reducing the interestingness of the ''character'', and thus the reader's investment in him/her/it). Examples of 2nd-person stories include ''Aura'' by Carlos Fuentes, ''Bright Lights, Big City'', and [[Homestuck]].
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