Point of View

I, he, or you?

Point of View

• Take out paper for Notes.• Label them, “Point of View.”

Point of View

• What do you know about point of view (POV)?

Point of View

• Three points of view:• 1st Person POV: “I went to the store.”• 2nd Person POV: “You went to the store.”• 3rd Person POV: “He went to the store.”

1st Person Point of View

• Advantages:– Language creates intimacy with character– “Sounds” more like the character– The character’s “voice” can drive the tension– Unreliable 1st POV is glorious, instant energy

• Disadvantages:– Narrator AND character are fused– Limited knowledge

• You can’t know other character’s thoughts• You can’t know what is going on beyond the character’s current

time and space

1st Person Point of View

• If character and narrator are fused and as one, do you still have to provide the reader with sensory details?– Example: I went to the store, and man, the clerk

was straight crazy.

1st Person Point of View

• “The Remains of the Day”– Miss Kenton (Female Butler)– Mrs. Mortimer (Female Butler)– Mr. Cardinal (Guest)– Stevens: Main Character (1st Person POV)

1st Person Point of View

• Underline any sentence that makes you think this narrator is unreliable.– Any instance of boasting– Any instance of exaggeration – Any instance of delusion– Any instance of hiding his/her emotions

• My legal name is Alexander Perchov. But all of my many friends dub me Alex, because that is a more flaccid-to-utter version of my legal name. Mother dubs me Alexi-stop-spleening-me!, because I am always spleening her. If you want to know why I am always spleening her, it is because I am always elsewhere with friends, and disseminating so much currency, and performing so many things that can spleen a mother. Father used to dub me Shapka, for the fur hat I would don even in the summer month. He ceased dubbing me that because I ordered him to cease dubbing me that. It sounded boyish to me, and I have always thought of myself as very potent and generative. I have many many girls, believe me, and they all have a different name for me. One dubs me Baby, not because I am a baby, but because she attends to me. Another dubs me All Night. Do you want to know why? I have a girl who dubs me Currency, because I disseminate so much currency around her. She licks my chops for it. I have a miniature brother who dubs me Alli. I do not dig this name very much, but I dig him very much, so OK, I permit him to dub me Alli. As for his name, it is Little Igor, but Father dubs him Clumsy One, because he is always promenading into things. It was only four days previous that he made his eye blue from a mismanagement with a brick wall. If you’re wondering what my bitch’s name is, it is Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior. She has this name because Sammy Davis, Junior was Grandfather’s beloved singer, and the bitch is his, not mine, because I am not the one who thinks he is blind.

1st Person Point of View (Unreliable Narrator)

• Features of unreliable 1st Person POV– Trying to persuade the reader of something, but falls way short– Wild energy and tension– Funny– It’s fun as hell exaggerating

• Read 1stPOV.Projector.docx• Read “Everything is Illuminated.”• Read “The Mayor of Ktown”• Read “The Remains of the Day”• Look for claims, moments when he/she is trying to persuade the

reader. Look for evidence that counters claims.

• Write down details that show the character is probably lying, or exaggerating. Look for wild self promotion.

1st Person Point of View

• Choose one of the following characters.• Write one page, in pairs. – A car thief who thinks he is innocent– A bad teacher THINKING he is the best– A wannabe gangsta thinking he OR she is hard– A bad athlete who THINKS he is the sh*()#$ and

thinking he will get scholarships to USC and Michigan.– A weirdo thinking he’s normal– Robert Roggenbuck

1st Person Point of View

• Mr. Birmingham Competition (when you are not so Mr…)

It’s hot on stage, but look at these shitheads. They can’t toss their bellies with the velocity of this guy here…I’m plumptatious, and I’m spicy, like Mexican Tacos, and that’s a Mexican food, so I’m worldly. I walk by Belfond, who’s a tall young man, good looking, but I spit on his eye, “haaaak, twuey.” This young man chases me, but I think it’s because he just wants my autograph so he could sell it on Ebay, or hang it on his ceiling.

1st Person Point of View• Valley Girl at a VallartaI’m like…in the line at this Mexican place, and, like, there’s all this like Mexican Music and Mexican people and Mexican food like everywhere. I’m too pretty for this. Where’s the like Vegan-Free-range salad?

“Hey, Mexican! I need someone to push my cart.”I snapped my fingers repeatedly, and like, these

people don’t understand English or something. Are they REALLY cooking their food OUTSIDE? Isn’t that like bacterial and stuff? I walk like to the drink stand and ask for a drink, and they give me this like cloudy milky drink…it’s called, Whore or something. I hand it back to like the Mexican lady and say, “I don’t like drink human milk.”

• Gangsta at the librarySup foos! ORalE you punkasses. This is a Baby Joker, but listen see these fists; they ain’t no joke. These fists can puncture a vault and are delicate enough to braid your girl’s hair (who was at my house last night.) I’m only here at this library because I’m thuggn’ to get into college to get my MBA and that ain’t no basketball league either. Kobe Bryant can’t even carry my junk ‘cus this is Baby Joker, ese. I’m from the hills of encino, the home of the jewish mafia. Think I’m scared? This cholo ain’t scared. I slowly put on my hairnet and they scatter! I hear the beep of a scanner and this hottie librarian is eyeing me. She has a cane, and white hair and shit, but she’s got that hot old thing going on.

“Sup, Mami?”“Please give me your books, there’s a line behind you.”“You want somma this, ese?” I say, making a muscle.

1st Person Point of View

– A weirdo thinking he’s normal– I’m so adjusted, and normal, that my parole officer

says I’ll be ready to have personal relationships in five years. My dog DID die, of natural causes, even though the hammer mark on his forehead did look strange.

1st Person Point of View– A wannabe gangsta thinking he OR she is hard– Nail Salon

– Sup Ese, this here is the place to be. Pablo Escobar, Scarface, Al Capone, tupac all have killa nails. I’ll have killa nails that match my whip. Know what I did last night? I scared the entire compton crips with my tattood mad dog face that I wiped off the next day. This Chinese lady is putting like gasoline on my fingers and wiping away the red nail polish…red is the color of blood, foo. And gasoline runs in my blood, but not like poison, because foo poison would kill you, and these nails be like defying death and sheet. I hold my hand out like it’s about to be kissed, but the Chinese lady gets all pissed and says chinese stuff and I don’t understand, for real, but most likely she be jocking these nails and this expensive ass package called, “me.”

1st Person Point of View

– A Redneck at El Pollo LocoGoddang this here chicken place. Yeee haw, this here Pollo ain’t just a swimming pool game. It ain’t some bone disease neither, somma bitch! Mashed taters! It’s more bliss than marrying my sister, LeAnne! She’s sweet, and we have beautiful babies with frog feet. MMmmm…hmm..These colored folks take a long time with this chicken.

“Y’all need to GIT GOT Up!”

1st Person Point of View• With this character, show how everything he claims is wrong. He/she will make

claims, but the outside world will show how unreliable the character is. Give me at least 3 bits of evidence that contradicts character. USE fresh, wild diction of your character. DO THIS IN PAIRS.

Example: “Not only are all of the coaches of big colleges on my jock, but so are the ladies. I see all of them, the coaches, the ladies, filming me with their cameras and phones in the stands. Coach hasn’t played me in 2 seasons, but hey, they just want to be nice and give Ray Lewis a shot, because if I were in, I’d steal all the attention. See how generous I am? Gawd Dang! Some of the girls in the lunch line sometimes giggle at me, but most likely because I have an addictive, charming sense of humor. Can’t you tell? Here’s one right now.

“Hey, Julia! How good am I on the shotgun?”“Johnson…when will you pull your head outcha ass?”Julia’s just having a bad day. Her family lives near the freeway, so I think

she has brain damage, so she don’t know what up with life. I have to be focused for practice anyway. I can throw 10 yards standing still. I could throw harder, but I’m just saving my arm for the game. And my spiral’s not the best, but I had one when I was 6 years old, so it’ll come back.

1st Person Point of ViewExample: Not only are all of the coaches of big colleges on my jock, but so are the ladies. I see all of them, the coaches, the ladies, filming me with their cameras and phones in the stands. Coach hasn’t played me in 2 seasons, but hey, they just want to be nice and give Elway a shot, because if I were in, I’d steal all the attention. See how generous I am? Gawd Dang! Some of the girls in the lunch line sometimes giggle at me, but most likely because I have an addictive, charming sense of humor. Can’t you tell? Here’s one right now.

“Hey, Julia! How good am I on the shotgun?”“Johnson…when will you pull your head outcha ass?”Julia’s just having a bad day. Her family lives near the freeway, so I think she has brain

damage, so she don’t know what up with life. I have to be focused for practice anyway. I can throw 10 yards standing still. I could throw harder, but I’m just saving my arm for the game. And my spiral’s not the best, but I had one when I was 6 years old, so it’ll come back.

Oh, here comes coach. “ When you gone start me bro?”“When are you going to show me your skills?”I don’t know why, but coach put his hand over his mouth and chuckled. This old dude

be weird.“Does that mean yes? I bench pressed 120 pounds this morning.”

1st Person Point of View• Assignment: Write, on your own, a scene

using an unreliable 1st person POV. ON YOUR OWN!

• Read them out loud!• Do their “claims” get shot down?• Does the piece have wild, interesting diction?

1st Person Point of View• 1st Line:

• Come here Mr. Noodles!• Tell me this ain’t monstrous.• I can’t get up at 8 o’clock after I dance.

2nd Person Point of View

• Advantages:– Immediacy: instant tension– Creates creepy effect of “you” being the character

• Disadvantages:– Like loud music, you can only take so much before

the sound gets tiresome, even annoying.– Difficult to adjust emotional intensity. Always

loud.

3rd Person Point of View• Advantages:– You can dart in and out of multiple characters’ heads.– You can adapt your character’s tone into the narrator

(Free indirect discourse)– You can jump into multiple places and times.– There is always a tension between character and narrator

• Disadvantages:– The tone can become “cold” if you stay distant.– It sometimes lacks pulsing, wild, erratic, rhetorical ways of

1st person. It’s the difference between having dinner with a story teller (1st POV) and a camera (3rd POV).

3rd Person Point of View• Close 3rd POV– Narrator Uses language of main character– Does not go into the thoughts/interiority of other

characters

• Omniscient 3rd POV– Narrator is almost like its own character, making

judgment, comments on others.– Can jump in and out of character thoughts.– Great for social commentary/satires (Jane Austen, Leo

Tolstoy). – Old technology that is coming back in fashion.

3rd Person Point of View• What do you know about 3rd person point of

view?

• Characters’ thoughts• He, she, they, him, her

3rd Person Point of View• The point of the next two exercises is to show

how POV can influence the character, the story. POV ripples out into every aspect of your story. You will see how.

3rd Person Point of View• In 3rd person POV, write a scene from your life

where you really made a mistake—small or large. Show no mercy. Show yourself completely wrecking things, behaving badly; it’s all your fault. Present other people in their best light—show them as helpful, concerned versions of themselves, while sticking to the truth. Highlight the bad in you and the good in those around you.3

• USE Sensory details and be SPECIFIC!

3rd Person Point of View (Mistake Scene, where you were “wrong.”)

• Example: Mr. Kim with his 5th period last year.• Mr. Kim sat in his chair, steaming, ready to erupt on

the children who were simply doing their work. He was having a horrible day. The children were simply engaged in their education, when suddenly Mr. Kim exploded into a tirade of expletives, condemning them, telling them they had bleak futures of unthinkable poverty and despair. HE called them horrible names. He paced the classroom, shoving an emphatic finger to each student’s face in the front row. He could smell the girl’s strawberry lotion as he told her she was a “______.”

3rd Person Point of View (Mistake Scene, where you were “wrong.”)

• Crap in bed at hotel.• John snuck into the hotel room through the window. He was

sweaty from the climb, so he slipped his open hand down the back of his pants, smearing the sweat between his buttocks onto his hand, and he wiped his hand all over the pillows, spitting with spray so that one could not see it. There was Nerse’s bed, perfectly made with a brown cover. John peeled open the blanket, and the clinking of his belt buckle as he pulled down his pants sparked a slow smile on his face. He spread his cheeks, his lower body ones, and suddenly his brown masa tumbled out of his colon, the sound like that of an emptied ketchip bottle. He closed his eyes and faced the ceiling, the fan cool over his face. The turd was perfectly formed, like a McDonalds soft serve.

3rd Person Point of View (Mistake Scene, where you were “wrong.”)

• Alyssa pulled the black hoodie over her head, and now she was covered in black. She approached the nun’s red chevorlet, running her index finger over the hood slowly, biting her lower lip in ecstasy. She uncapped the chocoloate syrup with her teeth, spitting out the cap, and she held the syrup over her head, her pinky cocked as if she were sipping tea. The chocolate sauce ran over in slick sheets over the hood. She then opened the carton of eggs. She cracked the egg delicately over the hood, and she used her index finger to swirl the yolk with the chocolate sauce. She drew a picture of Lucifer on the hood, then licked her finger, grinning.

3rd Person Point of View (Mistake Scene, where you were “wrong.”)

Tommy’s wife sat in the kitchen, her stomach protruding under a mu-mu. She cradled a cup of tea as Tommy stumbled into the kitchen, stinking of sour whiskey.

“I’m the king of the WORLD,” Tommy said, making a tight muscle with his bicep.

“I need to see the doctor today,” she said.“For what?”His wife looked out the window.“Oh, that thing in your stomach,” Tommy said.“Right. That thing. Your son,” she said.“The fellas and I are grabbing a drink or 17 at Salsa and

Beer. You should bring yourself and the thing in your stomach,” he said.

3rd Person Point of View• “I walked down the store and threw everything

onto the ground.”

• ‘I walked down the aisle of Target and shoved the television off the shelf, the screen exploding with smoke.

3rd Person Point of View• Read your partner’s scene.• Does it have the following?– Sensory details– Evasive dialogue– Third person (without slipping into 1st)– Precise physical gestures

– If not, add these to your story.

1st Person Point of View• Next, do a completely opposite version. Write

about the same screwup, which was in fact your fault, but present the sensory details, action, dialogue that explains why you did this thing. Present you as a hero who made a small mistake in service of the greater good, or you as a hero who was tricked, or trapped, or victimized by circumstances, bad childhood—whatever the case may be. Show the negative gestures, dialogue, sensory details of others.

1st Person Point of View• Example: Mr. Kim with his 5th period last year.• I had made a full breakfast, with omelettes, fresh

squeezed orange juice and coffee for my 5th period. I helped their parents with their tax returns. I’ve reset broken legs. I even was named a godfather for one of their siblings. But here they are, stomping through the class, disrespecting not only me, but each other: girls calling each other the “b” word, boys using racial slurs that would offend even a criminal. I was simply standing in front of the class, my jasmine incense burning to create a peaceful environment, and all these students do is engage in emotional violence and disrespect. How am I to teach, after I just got the Nobel peace prize?

1st Person Point of View• Write a fraudulent letter, asking a stranger for money. Make a BELIEVABLE story.

Use 1st person point of view.

Subject: BRUTAL EXPERIENCE!!! Paul Fernandez

I am writing this with tears in my eyes, my family and I came down here to Manila,Philippines for a short vacation unfortunately, we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed, all cash, credit cards and cell were stolen off us but fortunately for us we still have our passports with us.

We have been to the embassy and the police here but they are not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in few hours from now but we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager will not let us leave until we settle the bills .Am freaked at the moment.

Thanks

1st Person Point of View• Example: Mr. Kim with his 5th period last year.