The point-of-view of a story hugely impacts the way it is told and its affect on the audience. For example, a story about a murder would be presented very differently if the murderer or a family member of the victim told it – and it would be different if a child or an adult was the narrator.
Choose a story (movie, novel, story, poem, play, etc.) and demonstrate this fact. Show us how the narrator/point-of-view/perspective changes or affects the story.
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Throughout the short story "A&P", point of view is an essential element. The story is told in first person point of view. The narrator is a teenager employed at the local "A&P". If the narration was changed the story would be greatly affected.
The narrator is portrayed throughout the story as being immature and irrational. For example, the way he describes and views the girls is that of a teenage mind. An adult would most likely not make these observations. "She was the queen. he kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round." (Updike page 1) An adult's view of these girls compared with the quote above would probably be varied. The adult would most likely be making comments about the inappropriate outfit.
Furthermore, the narrator's age was critical the the actions that he took in regards to his job. The behavior he exhibited was spur of the moment and definitely not well thought out. Quitting his job was not a wise decision, and an adult would have most likely continued to work at the store. The older people are, the more experience and knowledge adults have. A teenager unfortunately isn't gifted with this knowledge and make a stupid decision. His emotions of being controlled dictated the decision and led him to lose the job as well as the girls. An adult would have appreciated the job and kept working their hardest. In conclusion, the narration of "A&P" greatly affects the outcome of the story.
Point of view can change the readers feelings on the story completely. In the story "A&P" for example, the story was told by the cashier, Sammy. Sammy narrating the story made his decision to quit seem foolish. But if it were one of the girls or an onlooker narrating the story, we would seem it as more of a cry for attention than anything else. The narrator can change the meaning of a story completely. The plot and events vary by who is recalling them.
In the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer the narrator is a character by the name of Bella Swan. The story revolves around her. She moves to a different state to live with her dad and she starts at a new school where she meets a family of vampires. Stephanie Meyer wrote four books this way. One of which changed perspectives from Bella to her friend Jacob. Her fourth book ended the series but Meyer wrote another novel called Midnight Sun. It is Twilight (the first book) from Edward's (the vampire) perspective. I have read them both. They could not be more opposite. Edward tells the story from what I would call a "guys" perspective. Meyer recalls every event in the same order in both books. the only difference is how the reader feels when each thing occurs. I felt things and understood things from one perspective that were not as clear from the other.
Different points of view can completely change the mind set of the reader. Not necessarily for better or for worse. It is just different. Familiar events occur from one perspective to the other, they just occur differently. Point of view is a very large aspect of good writing. The idea and plot of the story may be interesting but if it is being narrated from the wrong point of view than it may not be portrayed in the best of light.
In the movie "I am Legend" a disease causes all of New York City to be quarentined and evacuated, leaving behind hundreds of mutated humans, and one doctor and his dog, trying to find a cure. The whole movie is told through his point of view, from capturing a mutant for testing, to eventually finding the cure.
However, if the story was told from one of the mutants point of view, it would be completely different. The doctor would be seen as an intruder to their civilization, and a threat when he "kidnaps" one of their own. The movie would change from one about surival and finding a cure to one about a peaceful group of people who are invaded and attacked by an evil outsider. Point of view can change a story completely
Point of view is a very important element in a great majority of stories. Many stories are driven by the way the narrator acts, thinks, and feels if he appears in the story. I read a series by author Rick Riordan called "Percy Jackson and The Olympians." It is told in first person from Percy Jackson's, the main character, point of view. He is thrust into a world unknown when he finds out that he is the demigod son of Poseidon, Greek God of the Sea.
This story revolves around Percy as he must go on a quest to find the 'Master Bolt' of Zeus, stolen by a traitor. He has two new friends to accompany him on his journey: Annabeth, demigod daughter of Athena, and Grover, a satyr with the occupation of searching for the lost god Pan. While the story coming from Percy's point of view is easier to understand, as this world is new to both him and the reader so they share similar feelings, it would be changed drastically if Annabeth or Grover was the narrator, as they have had much more experience with the dangerous world of a demigod. As all three characters have different mind sets, one even being half-goat, they would have different views on how the events of the story play out. While Percy is shocked by everything that is happening and changing in his world, Grover and Annabeth would see it just as a normal day.
This shows how very different point of view could be, depending on the narrator and their experiences. Point of view can change a story to the greatest degree, or it could leave it the same. Point of view changes a story also because the narrator could have different priorities in their life, like Grover hiding his goat-half from the ignorant world, or Percy trying to grab a handle on these abrupt changes in his life.
Point of view is a necessary part of any story. Whether it be a play, novel, movie or even a poem, point of view can seriously effect the story's audience. This can be exemplified in the story "A&P", where the story would be much different if told through Sammy's boss, the A&P's manager. Much unlike Sammy's perspective, his boss would look at things through a very conformist point of view. It would also show some form of justification involving his confrontation between the three girls being indecent in the A&P. This new perspective would show his point of view of Sammy quitting his job, which would probably make the audience think of Sammy more as this unreasonable brat. Much like how the manager most likely thought of him. A story's point of view can have a great influence on it's audience.
In the book "Handle with Care" by Jodi Picoult, the point of view is very important. The narrator changes each chapter, giving us the story from many different perspectives. When the story is told from the teenage daughter's view, she is more rash and unthoughtful with her decisions. When it is told from the perspective of the father, everything is more evenly measured out and powerful. He cares more about the situation than the teenage daughter, after all. Also, you get all sides of the story when it is told in different perspectives. No matter what view the novel is told in, it has the same story line, but it changes a lot due to the person telling it.
In the book "Handle with Care" by Jodi Picoult the book is told in six different point-of views. Each chapter is told a different person. The six people that tell the story are Piper, Charlotte, Amelia, Marian, Sean, and willow. These six people have their own points-of-view with what is going on in the story. For example, When Charlotte is narrator she tells us how great the law suit is and how it will help the family with their financial issue and how Willow will be able to live a better life. On the other hand when Sean and Amelia tell us about the law suit they make it sound horrible (which it is). They are completely against the lawsuit and they tell the readers how it is destroying their family. If wasn’t for the different points-of-view in the story we would have only thought about the lawsuit in one way. If it was just Charlotte as the narrator we would have had no idea about how badly it was messing up the family. It was a good idea to have the book in six different point-of-views.
In the story, "My Fair Godmother", by Janette Rallison, the story is told in two different point-of-views. The story is told my two sisters, Savanah and Jane. The story line is that they both like the same guy, Hunter, and he likes both of them, but at different times. The first part of the story is told by Jane, who is jealous of Savanah dating Hunter. Later on in the book, Hunter dumps Savanah for Jane. From here on, the story is told in Savanah's point-of-view. I think the book is more interesting because you get both of their perspectives on the same situation. You see how Jane feels while her sister is dating the guy she likes, and then you see how happy she becomes when she is dating Hunter. It is the complete opposite for Savanah. You see how happy Savanah is with Hunter, then you see how sad she becomes when her sister is dating him. I think that books that are written with multiple perspectives tend to better because you get to be placed in multiple peoples shoes for the exact same situation, and you get to experience multiple feelings based on one central conflict. You also get much more information when a few point-of-views are stated. Perspectives are very important aspects of a story, and they can change the way the reader feels by who is telling the story.
In Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart", Poe writes the thriller in the point of view of the murderer. He writes as the protagonist slowly goes mad looking into his employers single steel blue eye, which he writes "Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold, and so by degrees-very gradually-i made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever...for it was not the man that vexed me, but his Evil Eye". The story would have been much different if it had been written in the old mans point of view, or the neighbors'. Point of view can affect a story drastically, and change how the reader views it.
-Point-of-view plays a critical role in many books, however some books rely much more heavily on point of view in order to increase suspense, mystery or add to the depth of the characters. In the short story "A Telltale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, point of view added to the character depth, and was necessary to move along the plot. The story must be told in a first person view so you can get into the mind of a killer going crazy. It is completely necessary that you know what the main character is thinking, because the main point of the story was to analyze a killers mind, not to write about a baseless murder.
-If, for example, the story was told from the police man's point-of-view, it would have changed the story very much for the worse. The police officers would walk into the building and they would see an apparently normal man. While they hung around they would notice him slowly get more tense, and then suddenly shout out "Villains, dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the planks! -- here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!" (last paragraph). This would just make him look weird, and it would make the ending seem very rushed. Instead of him slowly building up the suspense for the reader by talking about the beating heart, and the erupting in a dramatic ending, it would abruptly skip to the not so dramatic ending. This would have given the story a terrible flow making it much less enjoyable.
In the short story, "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, the story is told in third person. If the story had been told in Rainsford's or Zaroff's view the story would have been completely different because the two men's opinions are polar opposites. For instance, Rainsford hates the fact of hunting humans and despises Zaroff for it. He thinks of the game as murder and resents him for it. Zaroff, on the other hand, would seem innocent his own eyes because he thinks that humans are the lowliest of their kind and if he can capture them and if he has more power than them, he has the right to kill them. It is obvious that the story wouldn't be the same in any way if told by either of the men which is why Connell chose to do it in third person. He did this because he wanted to give each of the characters the chance to present their views and also giving the reader a chance to decide who is right.
In the story Handle With Care, the point-of-view is an exceptionally important element to the entire book. The point-of-view changes in each chapter. The mother, father, sister, lawyer, doctor, best friend, and the sister's best friend are eventually the narrators in the story. Even though the point-of-view changes, each person tells the story in first person.
The story would've been a lot less interesting and wouldn't have had as much feeling or emotion if one person told the story. Each chapter when the perspective change, a new part of the story was told in someone else's shoes. It made the story much more interesting. The story is being told to Willow by about seven different people. Each one tells a different part of her life, and how each person had some part in her life. This way of writing the book also gives the writer a lot more to write about because the story isn't stuck in one person's first person view.
Point of view impacts the affect of the story hugely and how the story comes to the audience. In the book Handle with Care, by Jodi Picoult, there are various narrators throughout the story. This story fully shows how important the different points of views are to the story. Throughout it, the narrators change from person to person in between every chapter. This is so you can get the story told through every eye of the people involved in it. When the mother tells the story, you can understand why she is pursuing the lawsuit that everyone is telling her not to pursue. But when the father tells the story, you also understand why he does not want to be a part of the law suit. Another important narrator of the story was the daughter. This was my personal favorite narrator, because you normally wouldn’t get the perspective of the youngest story member. The daughters specific parts make you feel bad for her, and not as much for the daughter that is involved in the lawsuit. As the narrators changed, I definitely began to feel bad for different people, and this was important to the story. If the narrators didn’t change, I’m not sure who I would have felt sorry for, and it would have changed the story completely. Depending on who the narrator is, and the perspective that character has on the specific events, it can change your feelings completely on the story itself.
Jodi Picoult is an author who is known for changing point-of-view throughout her stories. An example of this is in her book "Nineteen Minutes." It is about a troubled teenager who comes to school one day with a gun and shoots numerous students. Each chapter alternates between four character's points-of-view: Peter, the shooter; Peter's mom; Josie, who was best friends with Peter when they were younger and whose boyfriend was killed by Peter; and Josie's mom who is the judge on Peter's case. They all had very different takes on what happened and their thoughts contrasted greatly. The way this book was written changed the story because it made me think like every character and I felt sympathetic for each and every one of them, Peter especially.
Patch Adams, a great movie starring Robin Williams, the main story is that of a man wanting to become a doctor who uses laughter as a way of healing others. If the tale were told by the medical school's dean, it would tell something about a insane man who never listened to the rules and caused havoc in the hospitals. If it were told by some of the patients Patch Adams (Robin Williams), Patch would be described as a clown and/or a saint who brightened up their broken lives. The viewer would get a very different opinion of Patch by the way the narrator or the person that the story follows describes him.
In the story Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the story is told in 1st person point-of-view. This means that the narrator chose for the main character to tell the story. In the book, the main character, Lia, has anorexia, and the death of her best friend triggered it up again. Anorexia is really a disease of them mind, so it is all about how the person who possess it views it. In Lia's case, everyday she thinks she is more and more overweight, when really she is losing all the weight. She always talks about the world in an objective way, and if the story was written by a different character, I believe the book would have been a lot different. For example it could have been Lia's mom telling the story, and she could have constantly been saying how skinny and unhealthy her daughter was and how she needed to eat more. I believe it is more interesting and meaningful from Lia's point-of-view, because the author really lets the reader look into what is going on inside of her.
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