Point of View Analysis: First and Third Person

Point of View Analysis: First and Third Person

Read each passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Pay close attention to the narrator's perspective and how it influences the story.

Passage 1: Excerpt from 'The Great Gatsby'

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. It was an admonition to reserve all judgments, a habit that has had me in good stead, both in my career as a bond man and in my dealings with human beings.

1. What point of view is Passage 1 written in?

2. Identify at least two pronouns from Passage 1 that indicate the point of view.

Passage 2: Excerpt from '1984'

Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape from the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly fast enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him. The hallway smelt of boiled cabbages and old rag mats. At one end of it a colored poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a meter wide: the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black mustache and ruggedly handsome features. Winston made his way towards the lift, but it was an old lift, and at the present moment it was not working.

3. What point of view is Passage 2 written in?

4. In third-person narration, the narrator is an   observer, often using pronouns like he, she, it, and they.

5. Compare and contrast the effect of first-person and third-person limited points of view on a reader's understanding of a character's internal thoughts and feelings. Use examples from literature or your own created scenarios.