Point of View: Who Tells the Story

Identify first-person, third-person limited, and omniscient narrators and their effects.

Point of view is the perspective from which a story is told, and it controls what the reader can know. In first person, a character narrates using 'I,' so we only know what that character sees, thinks, and chooses to share. In third-person limited, a narrator outside the story uses 'he,' 'she,' or 'they' but follows one character's thoughts closely. In third-person omniscient, the narrator knows everything, including several characters' thoughts. Consider the same moment told two ways.

First person: 'I smiled at Kai, but inside I was furious. ' Omniscient: 'Rosa smiled at Kai, hiding her fury; Kai, meanwhile, had no idea what he'd done. ' The first version keeps us inside Rosa; the second shows both minds and lets us see Kai's ignorance. When you analyze point of view, identify it and then explain its effect: what it lets us know, what it hides, and how it makes us feel about the characters.

• 1First person: narrator is a character using 'I'
• 2Third limited: outside narrator follows one character's thoughts
• 3Omniscient: narrator knows many characters' thoughts
• 4Point of view controls what the reader can know