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 first-person is told by the character whose words you are reading. 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 or something else after the fact. We see everything that happens in the story through the lens of this person's perspective, so they are usually a Sympathetic P.O.V.. However, we are also limited by what they understand and what they choose to tell us, which may be inaccurate or misleading. The first-person perspective us usually the main character but may be a First-Person Peripheral Narrator whose function is to observe and narrate the story of the real protagonist. See The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, The Virgin Suicides, Animorphs, and The Twilight Saga.
- Second-Person Narration: You. The story is told about the reader, who is addressed as if s/he were a character in the story ("You dashed your drink across Sam's face, offended that he would even suggest such a thing"). It's rarely used outside of Interactive Fiction and short-form narratives like songs, poems and short stories because it gets alienating in long doses. As the story gets more elaborate, it quickly risks breaking the Willing Suspension of Disbelief to have the reader be told what they are doing in a fictional scenario. Examples of 2nd-person stories include Aura by Carlos Fuentes and Bright Lights, Big City.
- Third-Person Narration: 3rd-person uses he, she, them, they; there is no "you" or "I", except in dialogue. It comes in a number of flavors:
- Objective/Dramatic is an infrequently-used mode in which the story only relates observable phenomena, without ever delving into any character's thoughts or feelings (Confession Cam notwithstanding). It makes the piece feel like a documentary.
- Limited/Subjective is the most common POV choice in modern literature. This narration adheres to a Sympathetic P.O.V. the way 1st-person does, getting the reader inside that character's head but also allowing the depiction of reactions or other things the character isn't aware of (The Nose Bleed, for instance). If the pronouns could be changed to first person without losing any comprehension, this is the POV you're in. See the Harry Potter series, or Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- Multiple narrators: the story describes the actions and thoughts of more than one character. The different points of view might be separated by section breaks (Stephen King's The Dark Tower), by chapters (George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire), or even just by shifting to a new paragraph (Frank Herbert's Dune; warning: Don't Try This at Home). This gives the reader a much wider breadth and depth of knowledge by allowing the reader to see multiple events or the same event through a number of different eyes; if used carefully, it can even make the reader doubt what they saw in the first place. This is often used when there is no single protagonist in the story.
- Omniscient: The story is described from an external perspective, and any character's thoughts and feelings may be delved into. A truly omniscient narrator doesn't need scene breaks to switch to a different point of view. This was the most common POV in literature before the twentieth century. In modern times it is particularly associated with works with an "epic" feel to them, such as The Lord of the Rings. One version of this narrative includes Universal Omniscient, in which the narrator relates information that no character in the story has. ("Little did they know that a huge asteroid was at that moment hurtling toward Earth!"). This was the dominant mode for narratives before the 20th Century.
- Multiple-viewpoint: This is any story which combines any or all of the above narrative modes (Tad Williams' Otherland). This does not cover things like stylistic blend (having a single authorial aside in the Universal Omniscient style) or occasional rule-breaking (for instance, Harry Potter should theoretically never have chapters that are not from Harry's point of view, but in total there are quite a few, including a Dream Sequence and a partial-chapter slip in Book 1 Chapter 11). See Switching P.O.V., which is a bit more lax about that last.
No examples, please; this merely defines the term.
Related tropes:
- The All-Concealing "I" is about certain benefits of first-person narration.
- First-Person Dying Perspective: A character dies. The last moments are seen from their POV.
- First-Person Perspective
- First-Person Peripheral Narrator is when the first person narrator is not the the protagonist of the narration.
- First-Person Shooter is a genre of video games which uses a first-person perspective. Other genres of video games also use this perspective.
- First-Person Smartass is pretty obvious.
- The Private Eye Monologue is also written in 1st person.
- Intro-Only Point of View
- Non P.O.V. Protagonist: All the main characters have chapters narrated from their point of view... except this one.
- "Rashomon"-Style is a variation on omniscient viewpoint that can be used outside literature as well.
- Reader-Insert Fic: A genre of fan fiction where the reader themselves rather than an in-universe character serves as the point-of-view.
- Supporting Protagonist
- A similar trope is Sympathetic P.O.V..
- Unbroken First-Person Perspective is when a single first-person perspective is adhered to for the entire length of a game.
