{"id":2140,"date":"2016-09-14T11:25:53","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T11:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/index.php\/2016\/09\/14\/3rd-person-point-of-view-a-continuum\/"},"modified":"2023-08-14T16:36:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T16:36:45","slug":"3rd-person-point-of-view-a-continuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/2016\/09\/14\/3rd-person-point-of-view-a-continuum\/","title":{"rendered":"3rd Person Point of View –a continuum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I’m enjoying a book of short stories by O. Henry, I will use his work to show three levels of omniscient<\/strong> 3rd person point of view (POV) against the 3rd person objective<\/strong> point of view which is currently popular.<\/p>\n

The classics like those written by Dickens are heavy-handed with omniscient storytelling. In recent days, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light we Cannot See,<\/em> is a novel on the New York Times bestseller list that managed to keep a thoroughly poetic and lovely omniscient quality from beginning to end–and that’s the hard part.<\/p>\n

3rd person POV -objective<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was nine o’clock at last, and the drudging toil of the day was ended. Lena climbed to her the room in the third half-story of the Quarrymen’s Hotel. Since daylight she had slaved, doing the work of a full-grown woman, scrubbing the floors, washing the heavy ironstone plates and cups, making the beds, and supplying the insatiate demands for wood and water in that turbulent and depressing hostelry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–“A Chaparral Prince,” a short story by O. Henry<\/p>\n

3rd person POV with commentary<\/strong><\/p>\n

A guard came to the prison shoe-shop, where Jimmy Valentine was assiduously stitching uppers, and escorted him to the front office. There the warden handed Jimmy his pardon, which had been signed that morning by the governor. Jimmy took it in a tired kind of way. He had serve nearly ten months of four-year sentence. He had expected to stay only about three months, at the longest. When a man with as many friends on the outside is Jimmy Valentine had is received in the “stir “it is hardly worth while to cut his hair.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–“A Retrieved Reformation, a short story by O. Henry<\/p>\n

3rd person omniscient POV<\/strong><\/p>\n

A leg, strong, red-faced man with the Wellington beak and small, fiery eyes tempered by flaxen lashes, sat on the station platform at Los Pinos swinging his legs to and fro. At his side sat another man, fat, melancholy, and seedy, who seemed to be his friend. They had the appearance of men to whom life had appeared as a reversible coat–seamy on both sides.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–“The Hiding of Black Bill,” a short story by O. Henry<\/p>\n

3rd person omniscient POV addresses the reader (teaching, as well)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that Mr. Gibson has gone let us get back to business. We are to consider the shade known as purple. It is a color justly in repute among the sons and daughters of man. Emperors claim it for their especial dye…We say of princes that they are born to the purple; and no doubt they are, for the colic tinges their faces with the royal tint…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–“The Purple Dress,” a short story by O. Henry<\/p>\n

Back to Writing Tips<\/a><\/p>\n

On to Module 3, Crafting:\u00a0 What is craft<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I’m enjoying a book of short stories by O. Henry, I will use his work to show three levels of omniscient 3rd person point of view (POV) against the 3rd person objective point of view which is currently popular. The classics like those written by Dickens are heavy-handed with omniscient storytelling. In recent days, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[113],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2140"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2910,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions\/2910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}