First-person point of view

Point of view is the relationship of the storyteller to the story. A story told from the first-person point of view is told by one of the characters, who refers to himself or herself as "I." This character, who is the narrator, speaks directly to the reader to tell the story. Thus we have the advantage of an immediate report by someone actually involved in the events of the story. One possible disadvantage of the first-person narrator is that he or she provides only a partial view of the story. The narrator cannot tell what an­other character is thinking or what happens elsewhere. We read only what the narrator sees and hears-or what the narrator wants us to know. A first-person narrator can be unreliable. The narrator may be too involved in the story to be honest.

The omniscient point of view

A story told from the omniscient ("all-knowing") point of view is told by the author, acting as an omniscient narrator who stands outside the story. The omniscient narrator knows and can tell the reader everything, includ­ing the thoughts and feelings of every character. As a result, we usually know more than any one character does. The narrator's personality does not interfere with the storytelling, and we can trust the narrator com­pletely.

A narrator may also choose to shift points of view trying to explain things to the reader.

Focus on theme

The theme is the main idea, the insight about life and human experi-ence that an author expresses in a work. This idea may be a general truth about life or an exploration of a special way of looking at life. The theme of a work is a complete idea and should be expressed in a complete sen­tence. It may be stated directly in the work or may be implied in the other elements of the work. No matter what form it takes, the theme lies at the very centerof a work and ties all aspects of the. worktogether to express the author's insight.

A story has a stated theme when its author expresses the work's main idea directly. For example, Dorothy's statement in The Wizard of Oz that "there's no place like home" plainly tells us the theme of the work: Every­thing we might want can be found "at home" - within ourselves.

Many stories that state their themes directly do so by using a device called a frame. A frame story is really two stones, or a story within a story. Often, one person in the frame, or "outer" story, imagines or tells the "in­ner" story. In The Wizard of Oz, for instance, Dorothy's experience in Kan­sas serves as the frame for her dream about Oz. Very often the story's theme is stated in the frame, and this theme is worked out in more detail in the inner story.

The theme is the main insight about human experience that an author expresses in a work. While some writers present us with direct statements of their themes, most writers prefer to imply their themes in their works. An implied theme is one that is gradually revealed to the reader through the other elements of the work. Because the theme is a complete idea, it should be stated in a complete sentence. We can usually find a story's im­plied theme by asking the following questions:

• What ideas about life does the story's title suggest?

• What do the particular events and conflicts reveal about life in gen­eral?

• What might these particular characters with these personality traits tell us about people in general?

• What view of the world do the setting and its details offer us?

• What does seeing the events and characters from this particular point of view tell us about life?

• Was the author's purpose in putting these elements together to say something about life in general or to present one special sort of person and view of life?

FOCUS ON SYMBOL

Most successful stories are characterized by compression. The writer’s aim is to say as much as possible as briefly as possible. Good writers achieve compression by exercising a rigid selectivity. They choose the details and incidents that contribute most to the meaning they are after; they omit those whose usefulness is minimal. As far as possible they choose details that are multi-valued - that serve a variety of purposes at once. A detail that expresses character at the same time that it advances plot is more useful than a detail that does only one or the other. One of the resources for gaining compression is symbol.

A literary symbol is something that means more than what it is. It is аn object, a person, a situation, an action, or some other item that has a literal meaning in the story but suggests or represents other meanings as well. Literary symbols are to be distinguished from arbitrary symbols, like letters of the alphabet, numbers, and algebraic signs, which have no meaning of themselves but which mean only something else, not something more than what they are.

A symbol may have more than one meaning. It may suggest a cluster of meanings. At its most effective a symbol is like a many-faceted jewel; it flashes different colors when turned in the light. This is not to say that it can mean anything we want it to; the area of possible meanings is always controlled by the context. Nevertheless, this possibility of complex meaning, plus concreteness and emotional power, gives the symbol its peculiar compressive value.