| First Person: The story is being told
through the voice of one specific character. The character uses
the first person pronoun "I" when narrating the story. The
reader often times must pay close attention to the actions and
words of a first person narrator to determine his objectivity
because as readers, we are shown only one side of the story. |
"When
someone asks me what business I am in, I am seized with
embarrassment: I blush and stammer, I who am otherwise known as
a man of poise." from The Laugher
by Heinrich Boll |
| Third Person
Limited: The story is being seen through
the eyes of one particular character. The narrator reveals only
one character's inner thoughts and is not himself or herself a
character in the story. The narrator uses the pronouns he or she
when telling the story |
"Barry
cradled his father's head in the crook of his left arm, so that
the man could tilt back his head, exposing the throat. He
brushed fresh lather under the chin and into the hollows
alongside the stretched tendons. His father's throat was
fleshless and vulnerable, his head was a hard weight on the
boy's arm. Barry was filled with unreasoning protective love. He
lifted the razor and began to shave." from
Shaving by Leslie Norris |
| Omniscient: The
story is told by an all knowing narrator who supplies more
information about all the characters and events than any one
character could know. |
"Mrs.
Gage almost fell into the fire with joy. She had not seen her
brother for many years, and, as he did not even acknowledge the
Christmas card which she sent him every year, she thought that
his miserly habits, well known to her from childhood, made him
grudge even a penny stamp for a reply." from
The Widow and the Parrot by Virginia Woolf |
