Comparing Points of View in Stories

Every story has a narrator, the voice that tells you what is happening. Some narrators are a character inside the story. Other narrators stand outside the story and watch everything happen. When you compare these two kinds of narrators, you can see how the same event can sound completely different.

Point of view tells you whose eyes you are looking through while you read. If the narrator is a character in the story, you hear words like "I," "me," and "my." This is called first-person point of view. If the narrator is outside the story, watching like a camera, you hear words like "he," "she," "they," or a character's name. This is called third-person point of view.

A first-person narrator is a character who is part of the action. You only learn what that one character sees, hears, thinks, and feels. Read this sentence:

"I dropped my ice cream cone and felt my stomach sink."

You know exactly how the narrator feels, because the narrator is telling you directly. You do not know what anyone else in the scene is thinking, only what this one character notices.

A third-person narrator is not a character in the story. This narrator describes the characters from the outside, almost like a person watching through a window. Here is the same event told a different way:

"Maria dropped her ice cream cone, and her stomach sank."

Notice that the narrator uses Maria's name and the word "her" instead of "I" and "my." A third-person narrator can also describe more than one character, telling you what several people did at the same time.

Look at how the ice cream example changes depending on who tells it.

The narrator's point of view decides what you get to know. A first-person narrator lets you feel one character's feelings up close, but you miss out on what other characters are thinking. A third-person narrator cannot share private thoughts as closely, but it can show you several characters and places, almost like a wide camera view.

When you compare two tellings of the same event, ask yourself two questions. Who is telling this part of the story? What can this narrator see and feel that another narrator could not?

Pick a moment from your day, such as scoring a goal or finishing a puzzle. Write one sentence about it starting with "I." Then write another sentence about the same moment using your name and "he" or "she." Compare what each sentence lets a reader know.

Related lessons

• Comparing Story Narration Perspectives