A Unique Point Of View

Connie is like the average American girl who has just hit adolescence. She can't seem to walk past a mirror without examining herself in it first, she is at war with her mother, and thinks about boys round-the-clock. It is a hot summer in the sixties and many teens have little to do so they spend their time out and about at the local shops. The high temperatures send Connie and her friends to do the same. One night while in the street a random man makes a comment towards Connie and she thinks nothing of it. Days later, while alone in her family home the same man shows up at her door. He asks her to join him but she refuses. After a few brash threats she complies and joins the strange man for a ride in his gold car. In the short story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by author Joyce Carol Oates the protagonist Connie is conflicted by her desires, adolescent females from all decades can relate to the desires synonymous with adulthood. In the present day many adolescence fall victim when experiencing adolescent desires for attention, some excitement, and the ideas of freedom.

   The choice that a novelist makes in deciding the point of view for a novel is hardly a minor one. Few authors make the decision to use first person narration by secondary character as Ken Kesey does in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  By choosing Bromden as narrator instead of the central character of Randle Patrick McMurphy, Kesey gives us narration that is objective, that is to say from the outside of the central character, and also narration that is subjective and understandably unreliable. The paranoia and dementia that fill Bromden's narration set a tone for the struggle for liberation that is the theme of the story. It is also this choice of narrator that leads

“Long Beautiful Hair,” wrote by Ann Hood, is a piece most would assume just to be a narrative of how the author goes through different hair phases in her lifetime. However, that is only the superficial meaning; Hood’s piece is metaphorically set up for a greater purpose. If analyzed correctly, her piece is a complex explanation of a life lesson that people often struggle with: figuring out who they are created to be. In order for her to convey the message fully to the audience, she tells her story in a time progressing sequence while also using rhetorical strategies such as pathos and a metaphor.

The friends of the narrator, however, do not hide in the imaginary world of childhood and are maturing into adolescents. Sally, “ screamed if she got her stockings muddy,” felt they were too old to “ the games” (paragraph 9). Sally stayed by the curb and talked to the boys (paragraph 10).

Joyce Carol Oates intrigues readers in her fictional piece “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by examining the life of a fifteen year old girl. She is beautiful, and her name is Connie. Oates lets the reader know that “everything about her [Connie] had two sides to it, one for home, and one for anywhere but home (27). When Connie goes out, she acts and dresses more mature than she probably should. However, when she is at home, she spends the majority of her time absorbed with daydreams “about the boys she met”(28). This daydreaming behavior is observable to the reader throughout the story. From theories about dreams, theories about

A narrator, who is without a name, tells of his first hand experiences throughout the story. This is in contrast to ‘Miss Brill’ in which narrative is delivered in the third person, with the use of free indirect speech to depict the story and portray the characters. By Wells selecting a first person narrative he draws the reader closer into the character’s mind set. This gives Wells the ability to convey the primary characters full spectrum of emotional thought, from open mindedness to the conflict and fear within him. First narrative provides the reader insight to thoughts and observations therefore adding suspense of the unknowing into the gothic style.

Sean Covey an author and motivational speaker once stated, “Seeing things from a different point of view can help us understand why other people act the way they do. We too often judge people without having all the facts.” Authors like Sean Covey understand the power of point of view and use it to help the readers to relate to the characters in stories. For instance, Sandra Cisneros in her short story “Eleven” and O. Henry in his short story “The Skylight Room” effectively utilize more than one point of view in their stories to connect the readers with the characters. In “Eleven” Rachel, a young girl, describes how her teacher forced her to wear somebody else’s sweater on her birthday. Through the application of first and second person point of view, Cisneros creates in the readers a feeling of sympathy for Rachel. Likewise in “The Skylight Room” O. Henry uses first and second point of view to help the reader understand the difficulties of Miss Elise Leeson, who slowly starves as she struggles to earn enough money to pay for her little room. Also, O. Henry writes in third person point of view in order to make his facts and information believable. Both Cisneros and O. Henry write in first and second person point of view to draw the readers into the story and connect them to the characters; however, O. Henry includes third person point of view in order to make it more reliable than Cisneros’s story.

In many cultures, coming of age is often celebrated because children become young adults who grasp self-awareness and accountability. At the same time, childhood is threatened by responsibility, which is dreaded because there is an unpredictable world of adulthood waiting with no guarantees. James Hurst demonstrates the journey of growing up through life experiences everyone goes through in the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”. Throughout his use of mood, setting, and symbolism, Hurst shows that maturing requires reflecting on past experiences and losing innocence, which then can transform one’s outlook on life.

The point of view is first person, and this choice is more immediate and direct. The reader is able to explore the narrator’s perspective which may be reflective of bigger pictures of the story, such as the treatment of black Americans in the southern United States. The reader understands events from his point of view including what the narrator thinks and feels throughout the short story. Overall, we are more connected with the narrator because it is first person.

In Passing by Nella Larsen, Irene’s encounters are traced from the perspective of a third person narrator. Third person limited narration is positioned to provide the readers with an insight into the thoughts and emotions of characters. In the novel, it stated “, An attractive-looking woman, was Irene’s opinion, with those dark, almost black, eyes and that wide mouth like a scarlet flower against the ivory of her skin” (14). With vivid imagery, the readers are given the perspective of Irene through an insight into Irene’s reflection of Clare. The readers are explicitly informed that these opinions being expressed belong to Irene with the phrase “Irene’s opinion”, but how much of the statement is truly Irene’s thoughts? Because of the placement

Edgar Allen Poe’s use of the first person narrative in The Tell-tale Heart is much more effective than Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of the third person in Young Goodman Brown because the use of the first person in Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart allows the reader to feel the narrator’s panic while the third person narrator in Young Goodman Brown only tells the story and the reader does not feel the main character’s feelings. By telling the story of the Tell Tale Heart in the first person, Poe allows his readers to see the build up of the main characters insanity with the use of language and crazy and rambling dialogue. On the other hand, Hawthorne’s use of the third person simply narrates the story and tells of Brown’s feelings rather than having

Everybody has tried acting like someone else in their life before, but then they realized that they should just be who they are. Well that is the themes for "the pink hat" and "7th grade". The short stories "the pink hat" By: Caroline Bond Day and "7th grade" By: Harry Sotoe show the reader that even though you want to act differently¬ to impress someone or to like you, you should always be yourself. Both authors develop the theme be who you are through their wonderful stories.

A few years later Fitzgerald scribbled “Basis of Bernice” on the heading of the letter’s first page. These letters became the basis of the ten thousand-word story, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”, he drafted in 1919. Fitzgerald sent his story to numerous magazines yet was met with even more rejections. Many editors called it “cliché”, “boring” and trying to please them he cut his manuscript in half and scrapped the ending in hopes of

The experiences we have in childhood do much to shape our adult identity. In her novel Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood chronicles the life of artist Elaine Risley, and through a series of flashbacks shows the reader how she became her adult self. The retrospective showing of Elaine's artwork provides a framework for the retrospective of her journey from child to adult. Because Atwood was creating a fictional character, she was free to incorporate some very dramatic events that impacted Elaine's thoughts and feelings. Most of us do not have as much drama in our lives I certainly did not and yet the people, circumstances and occurrences in our lives affect us profoundly. We create our identity by the friends we choose, the decisions we make, and the way we respond to things that happen around us. Some things happen to us, and we also make conscious choices.

Munro's use of stories is one of her many forms of conforming the different narratives and points of view together. She tells the story the way that she sees it forming and lets the reader figure it out for themselves. In this story, the reader has to first realize that the main story is not on the bookstore owner, but on Charlotte, the woman