Narrator and perspective · Grade 12
Every story has a narrator: the voice telling it. The perspective (or point of view) decides what the reader knows and how close we feel to the characters.
Key facts
- First person: the narrator is a character and says I or we: I opened the door. We see only what the narrator sees and thinks.
- Second person: the text speaks to you: You open the door. It pulls the reader into the story; it is rare in stories but common in games and instructions.
- Third person: the narrator is outside the story and uses he, she, they or names: She opened the door.
- Third person limited follows one character's thoughts; third person omniscient knows what every character thinks and feels.
- An unreliable narrator cannot be fully trusted: they may lie, forget, boast or misunderstand, so the reader has to read between the lines.