12/23/2023 0 Comments Identify narrator point of view 7![]() ![]() Consider this example: the opening to Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, which introduces us to a teenage girl named Connie. Instead of describing to us what Jody is imagining-that he pretends he is marching in front of a “phantom army”-the narrator presents that army as if it were actually there-“silent, but deadly.” In other words, at this moment, we’re not seeing the world of a third-person narrator we’re seeing the delightfully boyish worldview of Jody.įree indirect discourse has been an important feature of Western narratives for over a hundred years, but spotting it is not always easy. But the last line of this passage does something different. This passage starts in a traditional third-person way, in which an outside narrator describes the actions of a character-Jody. Now Jody marched seemingly alone, with high lifted knees and pounding feet but behind him there was a phantom army with great flags and swords, silent but deadly." Some time back the other members of the squad that walked so smartly from the school had turned into the various little canyons and taken the wagon roads to their own home ranches. Banging his knee against the golden lard bucket he used for school lunch, he contrived a good bass drum, while his tongue fluttered sharply against the teeth to fill in snare drums and occasional trumpets. ![]() "In a mid-afternoon of spring, the little boy Jody walked martially along the brush-lined road toward his home ranch. In John Steinbeck’s novella “The Red Pony,” the third chapter begins with the following description: As I like to think of it, free indirect discourse describes moments in a third-person narrative when the narrator becomes infected by the perspective of one of its characters. In this point of view, a third-person narrator stops describing the worldview of a given character-telling us what he or she thinks-and instead presents that worldview as if it were the narrator’s. Today, I want to talk to you about a fascinating point-of-view that blends first and third person perspectives: free indirect discourse. But you don’t really see her worldview in the same way that you see the worldview of a first-person narrator instead, you have that worldview described for you by an intermediary: the third-person narrator. ![]() She didn’t intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush up against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself."įrom this passage, you can get a sense of what the grandmother cares about (her cat) and how she values herself (her cat loves her). She had her big black valisein one corner, and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it. "The next morning the grandmother was the first one in the car ready to go. In the following passage from Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” we get an indirect sense of the grandmother’s worldview as she prepares for an ill-fated family car trip to Florida: In this point-of-view, the narrator may choose to describe the thoughts of a given character from an outside perspective. If you haven’t seen these videos, you may want to check them out before we get into today’s lesson on free indirect discourse.Ī second way to deliver a character’s worldview is indirectly from a third-person perspective. First-person narrators are described in our “ What is a Narrator?” and “ What is an Unreliable Narrator?” videos, and both lessons give you a good sense of the differences between how these narrators see the world and how the world often is. This is a common point of view in which a character in the story also serves as its narrator. ![]() The easiest way to convey a character’s worldview is directly, through a first-person perspective. This is one of the reasons that we read fiction: stories offer us the opportunity to not only travel to different worlds and different time periods but also to inhabit different worldviews. It can also show us the limitations in our own worldview, which may differ in substantial ways from our world as it really is. Seeing the world as another person sees it can be surprising, confusing, and delightful. What is Free Indirect Discourse - Transcript (English & Spanish Subtitles Available in Video, Click HERE for Spanish Transcript)īy Raymond Malewitz, Oregon State University Associate Professor of American Literature Conference for Antiracist Teaching, Language and Assessment.Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS).Scientific, Technical, and Professional Communication Certificate. ![]()
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