Point of View & Perspective Practice

A.        The ______ is the person telling the story.  The author chooses who should tell the story.

• main character

• narrator

• first person

• purpose

The narrator of a story (a king) feels that his colonists are ungrateful and should pay him money to help pay for the French and Indian War.  Is this point of view or perspective?

• point of view

• perspective

• both

• neither one

It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No. Wrong word, Jonas thought. Frightened meant that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible about to happen. Frightened was the way he had felt a year ago when an unidentified aircraft had overflown the community twice. He had seen it both times. Squinting toward the sky, he had seen the sleek jet, almost a blur at its high speed, go past, and a second later heard the blast of sound that followed. Then one more time, a moment later, from the opposite direction, the same plane.

From Lois Lowry, The Giver. Copyright 1993

The author wrote this passage using which point of view? ____________

Hermione looked at books on the return cart while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if The Guide to Warty Spells wasn’t somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he’d never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

From J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Copyright 2004

The author wrote this passage using which point of view? ___________

• 1st

• 2nd

• 3rd limited

• 3rd omniscient

When a story is written in _______ point of view, the narrator is not a character in the story.  The narrator can dive into any character’s head and share their thoughts and emotions with the reader. Additionally, the narrator can move around in time and place to show the reader events that the characters themselves may not be aware of! That includes jumping around from location to location, or even moving backward and forward in time.

• first

• second

• third limited

• third omniscient

True or False:  There are some major limitations to using a first person point of view.  If a story is written using first person POV, readers won’t be able to get the thoughts and feelings of other characters in the novel. 

• True

• False

The man at the cash register has a nose the shape of a turnip, and eyes sunk so deep I can't imagine how he sees well enough to go about his business. "Need something?" he asks.

From Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper. Copyright 2004

The author wrote this passage using which point of view? ___________

• first

• second

• third limited

• third omniscient

Using __________ point of view (the main character in the story is the narrator) allows an author to dive much more deeply into that narrator’s personality, since the reader gets to hear that narrator's inner thoughts and experience the narrator's emotions in their own words. 

• first

• second

• third limited

• third omniscient

In __________ POV, the narrator relates the events of the story using I think, feel, hear, see. 

True or False:  First-person narration engages the reader and draws him or her into the story by making the reader follow along with the main character of the story. 

• True

• False