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first-person point of view is the main character’s, though it can be a minor character’s In this example, the narrator of the novel If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler involves 1
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instead. Regardless, the first-person narrator gives us a vivid on-the-spot account of readers in the story by acknowledging exactly what the readers are doing in real time.
events and internal thoughts. In most cases, a first-person narrator is every bit as much While some authors create a more fictional world in which to immerse readers, Calvino’s DIFFERENTIATION chapter 1
a creation of the writer’s imagination as any other character, so be careful not to novel begins inside the reader’s world instead, forging an immediate bond between the
confuse a first-person narrator with the author. reader and the story. Scaffolding
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Edward P. Jones uses an unnamed first-person narrator in “The First Day” — the AP Teaching Tip. You may wish to
daughter — and she recalls the events of the story as an adult from the perspective of a Third-Person Point of View Section 1 / Elements of Fiction ask students to explore the 2005 AP ®
flashback. She says that these events occurred “long before [she] learned to be A third-person narrator tells the story using the third-person pronouns he, she, and it. Literature Prose Passage prompt, which
ashamed of [her] mother” (par. 1). Yet as she’s telling this story, she does not seem This type of narrator views all events in a story from a distance and does not play a role also incorporates a second-person point
Analyzing Short Fiction
ashamed; she instead seems proud of her mother’s heroic journey and proud that her in the actual plot. A third-person narrator with a limited point of view tells us what just of view. The prompt, student essays, and
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mother overcame so many obstacles to make sure her daughter had a bright future. As one major or minor character is thinking and feeling. This perspective both conceals scoring commentary can be found at AP
© Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.
a result, the flashback provides the daughter an opportunity to share a more mature, and reveals. While it restricts how much readers know, it can also give readers insight Central. The 2005 prompt includes the
developed understanding of the day than she could have as a child experiencing it, or into who a character is and how that character sees the world. In “Miss Brill” by entire text of the short story “Birthday
even as an older child who has “learned” to feel ashamed of her mother’s lack of Katherine Mansfield, we see through the eyes of an aging woman sitting in a park in a Party” by Katharine Brush. Review the
prompt, retrofit it using the new stable
education. vacation town in France and observing others around her. We experience all of the wording found on p. 138 in the Course
action and characters through her perspective. and Exam Description, and rescore essays
Second-Person Point of View using the 6-point rubric.
Second-person narrators are rare but not unheard of. Second-person point of view
puts the reader right in the story, but it is rarely used (and is often viewed as a gimmick),
perhaps because it makes the reading experience too literal — you are not just asked to from Miss Brill TRM Annotation Handout
imagine a character, you are told that you are the character. However, it can be very Katherine Mansfield A student handout for annotating this text
effective at involving the reader in the story and creating intimacy, as in the following can be found in the Teacher’s Resource
example from Italo Calvino’s novel If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. Oh, how fascinating it was! How she enjoyed it! feeling at telling her English pupils how she spent Materials.
How she loved sitting here, watching it all! It was her Sunday afternoons. No wonder! Miss Brill
like a play. It was exactly like a play. Who could nearly laughed out loud. She was on the stage.
believe the sky at the back wasn’t painted? But it She thought of the old invalid gentleman to
from If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler wasn’t till a little brown dog trotted on solemn whom she read the newspaper four afternoons CLOSE READING
and then slowly trotted off, like a little “theatre” a week while he slept in the garden. She had Ask students to take notes about how the
Italo Calvino
dog, a little dog that had been drugged, that got quite used to the frail head on the cotton narrator’s use of punctuation (exclama-
You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new Find the most comfortable position: Miss Brill discovered what it was that made it pillow, the hollowed eyes, the open mouth, and tion points, rhetorical questions, dashes,
novel, If on a winter’s night a traveler. Relax. seated, stretched out, curled up, or lying flat. so exciting. They were all on the stage. They the high pinched nose. If he’d been dead she etc.) throughout the excerpt conveys the
Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the Flat on your back, on your side, on your weren’t only the audience, not only looking on; mightn’t have noticed for weeks; she wouldn’t narrator’s opinion about Miss Brill. Then,
world around you fade. Best to close the door; the stomach. In an easy chair, on the sofa, in the they were acting. Even she had a part and came have minded. But suddenly he knew he was ask students to share these observations
TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others rocker, the deck chair, on the hassock. In the every Sunday. No doubt somebody would have having the paper read to him by an actress! “An with the whole class.
right away, “No, I don’t want to watch TV!” Raise hammock, if you have a hammock. On top of noticed if she hadn’t been there; she was part of actress!” The old head lifted; two points of light
your voice — they won’t hear you otherwise — “I’m your bed, of course, or in the bed. You can the performance after all. How strange she’d quivered in the old eyes. “An actress — are ye?”
reading! I don’t want to be disturbed!” Maybe they even stand on your hands, head down, the never thought of it like that before! And yet it And Miss Brill smoothed the newspaper as DIFFERENTIATION
haven’t heard you, with all that racket; speak yoga position. With the book upside down, explained why she made such a point of starting though it were the manuscript of her part and
louder, yell: “I’m beginning to read Italo Calvino’s naturally. from home at just the same time each week — so said gently: “Yes, I have been an actress for a Mode of Expression
new novel!” Or if you prefer, don’t say anything; 1979 as not to be late for the performance — and it long time.” Ask students to rewrite the Katherine
just hope they’ll leave you alone. also explained why she had quite a queer, shy 1920
Mansfield passage using a first-person
point of view. After students have
completed this, ask them to share their
14 15 versions with a partner. The pairs can then
discuss the different effects achieved by
the shift in point of view.
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chapter 1 / Elements of Fiction 15
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