Detailed An Understanding Of The Narrator's Perspective example essay topic

When writing literature, authors will adapt points of view to mold the perceptions of their readers. Three points of view that authors use to draw readers into their works of fiction are the limited perspective, the first-person perspective, and the objective perspective. Three stories will be examined and critiqued for their use of these narrative techniques. Of the three perspectives that will be examined, the first-person perspective is the most useful for sharing the authors' vision.

Authors employing the first person point of view give readers the broadest exposure to the feeling (s), opinion (s), and position (s) that writers attempt to communicate via their narration. The story, "A&P" by John Updike related the short story of a teenage employee at the beginning of a period of social upheaval and re characterization of gender roles. The setting for the story was a sleepy inland coastal town during 1962. Sammy, the teenage d protagonist and narrator, provided a clear lens for the perspective that the author presented.

The viewpoint of this narrator related to his adolescent need for romantic nobility and his incipient role defiance. The faux noble protagonist attempted to defend three bikini-clad adolescent girls whom defied the implicit taboo regarding exposure of flesh outside of the prescribed boundaries that was understood to be in effect. The narration accounted by the first-person narrator was well-developed and gave descriptive familiar language that built a distinct voice for the narrator, Sammy. The author gave sufficient background information within the story to construct a realistic causality framework for the plot setting. By the author installing the reader as an observer of his hero's thoughts, feelings, and actions, the author provided the reader with the opportunity to share the narrator's experience.

The use of a limited perspective does not give as detailed an understanding of the narrator's perspective. An excellent example of the limitations of this point of view is demonstrated in "The Cask of Amontillado" written by Edgar Allen Poe. The narrator and anti-hero, Montresor, had a very limited voice due to the author's minimalist construction of the narrator. The author limited his readers' understanding by drawing a perspective that included only the narrator's actions.

While the narrator acted as a villain in the story's context, Montresor's lack of convincing feeling and his confused description of the supposed crimes of his foil, Fortunato, made Montresor's motives murky to the reader. On the other hand, the author provided a vibrant colorful voice to the foil of the story, Fortunato. Also, Mr. Poe gave sufficient background development to Fortunato to make the foil a sympathetic character to his readers. While the action of the story was well accounted by the author, the narrator's dialogue was mostly internal. The author's use of an unreliable narrator was additionally useful to express and convey the narrator's decent into madness. Edgar Allen Poe's application of the limited perspective forced the reader into experiencing a sense of the insanity that his villain, Montresor, felt as he mortared his likable nemesis, Fortunato, into the subterranean vault.

The limited perspective provided some interaction with the viewpoint of the narrator, but it lacked the involvement provided by the first person perspective. The objective point of view provides little information for the reader of the underlying story. While the reader has ample information to speculate about motive and characters' desires, these questions are only answered if the author chooses to share that information. "The Girls in their Summer Dresses" by John Shaw is a fine illustration of the limited perspective. The storyline is an objective narration of the marital facade of a young couple that is held together by alcohol and the wife's feigned ignorance of her husband's hedonistic lechery. While the objective perspective made for quick and easy reading much like television, this narrative style left many questions as to motivation and the couples' thoughts unanswered.

There is plenty of opportunity for the reader to speculate upon the plot line, but due to the vague narrative map, the reader's interpretation of the story becomes predictable-based on the readers' demographics. The objective perspective has a sense of a series of drawings rather than the participation evoked by the first person perspective. An understanding of an author's message can be controlled by his use of narrative perspective. A work of literature may make use of many narrative perspectives or utilize one narrator's point of view. Of the many narrative perspectives, three points of view, the first-person narration, the limited narration, and the objective narration each have specific benefits.

In "A&P", John Updike's use of the first-person point of view allowed the reader to feel empathy for the adolescent hero. By limiting the reader's viewpoint to a single facet of Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado", Edgar Allen Poe aptly fashioned his insane narrator's voice, but the inadequacy of the limited point of view became apparent as so much of the narrator's story was hidden. John Shaw's "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses" gave a detailed presentation of scenery, action, and dialogue but forced the reader into being a detached observer. Each of these writers made use of a specific type of point of view to draw their reader in a particular direction. It is evident that the first person perspective gave the most involved reading experience. Additionally, this point of view exposed the reader most fully to the narrative message.

Perspective is an excellent narrative tool that authors make use of to convey their message to readers.