Name: __________________

Date: ___________________
Class: __________________
Period: _________________
Point of View Identification
Purpose: As we work toward our unit project, the short story, it is important that you understand how point of
view impacts a story. In order to do that, one must first be able to identify different types of point of view.
Eventually, you will be able to independently use this learning to write your own narrative and understand the
impact that comes from writing in various points of view.

Instructions: There are excerpts from multiple narratives below. First, identify which type of narration s being
used (1st, 2nd, 3rd). Then, explain how the point of view impacts narrative development in the excerpt.
Remember, different points of view alter the distance between reader and narrator/story, which has an impact on
tone.

Points Possible: 15 (3 per question)

1. The minute I went in, I was sort of sorry I'd come. He was reading the Atlantic Monthly, and there were
pills and medicine all over the place, and everything smelled like Vicks Nose Drops. It was pretty
depressing. I'm not too crazy about sick people, anyway. What made it even more depressing, old
Spencer had on this very sad, ratty old bathrobe that he was probably born in or something. (J.D.
Salingers Catcher in the Rye.)

Point of View: ____________

Impact on Narrative Development:
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2. When he had exhausted all possibilities in the letters, he began attacking the names and addresses
on the envelopes, obliterating whole homes and streets, annihilating entire metropolises with
careless flicks of his wrist as though he were God. Catch-22 required that each censored letter bear
the censoring officer's name. Most letters he didn't read at all. On those he didn't read at all he
wrote his own name. (Joseph Hellers Catch-22).

Point of View: ____________

Impact on Narrative Development:
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3. Call me Ishmael. Some years agonever mind how long preciselyhaving little or no money in my
purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the
watery part of the world. (Herman Melvilles Moby Dick).
Point of View: ____________
Impact on Narrative Development:
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4. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you
choose. Youre on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy wholl decide where
to go." (Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places Youll Go!).
Point of View: ____________
Impact on Narrative Development:
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5. Holy Virgin, signor," cried old dame Lisabetta, who, won by the youth's remarkable
beauty of person, was kindly endeavoring to give the chamber a habitable air, "what a
sigh was that to come out of a young man's heart! Do you find this old mansion gloomy?
For the love of heaven, then, put your head out of the window, and you will see as bright
sunshine as you have left in Naples.

Guasconti mechanically did as the old woman advised, but could not quite agree with her
that the Lombard sunshine was as cheerful as that of southern Italy. Such as it was,
however, it fell upon a garden beneath the window, and expended its fostering influences
on a variety of plants, which seemed to have been cultivated with exceeding care. (Nathaniel Hawthornes
Rappaccini's Daughter).

Point of View: ____________

Impact on Narrative Development:
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