Point of View (POV) Flashcards
What is the first step when looking for POV?
Look for pronouns to determine if it is 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person POV
What is a pronoun?
Noun = Person, place, thing, animal
Pronoun = takes the place of a noun.
Ex. I, Me, You, You all, He, She, It, They, Them etc.
What is the second step when looking for POV?
IF IT IS 3rd PERSON POV:
Look for thoughts/feelings of the characters. This will tell you if it is 3rd perosn objective, 3rd person limited, or 3rd person omniscient.
(If the text is written in 1st or 2nd person POV, the second step is NOTneeded. The second step is ONLY needed if the text is written in 3rd person POV)
1st person POV
The narrator is IN the story. The narrator uses words, such as “I”, “Me”, “We”, and “Us”.
Ex. I was laughing so hard that I could hardly breathe!
2nd person POV
The narrator is the READER. The narrator uses words, such as “you”, “you all”, “you guys”, etc. and/or tells the reader what to do (gives them instructions).
Ex. Choose Your Own Adventure Series (YOU are the character in the story), cooking instructions, etc.
3rd person POV
The narrator is NOT in the story. They are talking about what happened to somebody else. The narrator uses words, such as “he”, “she”, “they”, etc.
Ex. He walked to the store.
3rd person Objective POV
The narrator is NOT in the story. They are talking about what happened to somebody else. The narrator uses words, such as “he”, “she”, “they”, etc.
THERE ARE NO THOUGHTS/FEELINGS SHOWN.
Ex. He bought some ice cream for his sister.
3rd person Limited POV
The narrator is NOT in the story. They are talking about what happened to somebody else. The narrator uses words, such as “he”, “she”, “they”, etc.
ONE PERSON’S THOUGHT/FEELINGS ARE SHOWN. THE READER IS LIMITED TO KNOWING ONLY ONE PERSON’S THOUGHTS/FEELINGS!
Ex. He bought some ice cream for his sister because she liked ice cream.
**Be careful:The text might not always use the words “thought” or “felt”. You will often need to infer whether thoughts or feelings are being shown. Ex. “He didn’t like when they called him names.”, “She loved her new dog.”, etc.
3rd person Omniscient POV
The narrator is NOT in the story. They are talking about what happened to somebody else. The narrator uses words, such as “he”, “she”, “they”, etc.
MORE THAN ONE PERSON’S THOUGHTS/FEELINGS ARE SHOWN!
Omniscient = all knowing
Ex. He bought some ice cream for his sister because she liked ice cream. He also loved ice cream, but was not in the mood to eat it since it was snowing outside.
**Be careful:The text might not always use the words “thought” or “felt”. You will often need to infer whether thoughts or feelings are being shown. Ex. “He didn’t like when they called him names.”, “She loved her new dog.”, etc.
What is the difference between 3rd person Objective, Limited, and Omniscient?
3rd person:
Objective- NO thoughts/feelings are shown.
Limited- ONLY ONE person’s thoughts/feelings are shown.
Omniscient- TWO OR MORE persons’ thoughts/feelings are shown.
What does “Omniscient” mean?
“all knowing”
What does “inference” mean?
To make an educated guess based on the clues that are in the text.
Examples of things that you might find by making inferences:
Character traits, setting information, thoughts/feelings of characters, topic, theme, etc.
What is a Point of View (POV)?
The perspective that a text is written in.
What is a narrator?
The voice that tells the story. The narrator can be inside of the story or outside of the story.
The pronouns used by the narrator and the thoughts/feelings that they reveal determine what POV the story is written in.
What is the difference between the “author”/”writer” and the “narrator”?
The author/writer is the real life person who actually wrote the text.
The narrator is the voice that tells the story.
(the author/writer creates the narrator)
