Point of View
Point of View in Narration Essay Paper
Order Instructions:
Question:
Point of view is the defining feature of narrative because between the story and the reader is the narrator, who shapes what will be told and how it will be perceived. Examine how narrative point of view shapes story and significance in the following TWO texts:
David Almond, Fire Eaters
Ursula Dubosarsky, The Red Shoe
*Note: Referencing: appropriate scholarly sources.
Marking criteria: 30%
1. Relationship to topic or task
Highly sophisticated demonstrated understanding of the task; sophisticated knowledge of implicit or embedded aspects.
2.Knowledge of literary/ critical concepts. Good demonstrated understanding of critical concepts and how these can be applied to texts.
3. Development of independent critical argument. Some originality and insight in identifying, generating and communicating a coherent critical argument.
4. Analysis of narrative strategies, literary technique, theories (rather than paraphrasing plot) Superior analysis of narrative strategies/literary technique/theories.
5. Appropriate use of technical terms Highly sophisticated use of technical terms.
6. Evidence of secondary research. Ideas well integrated into and supported by published research.
7. Selection and analysis of examples from text(s): Superior analysis of texts: analysis moves beyond the obvious towards nuanced or original insights.
8. Presentation (language and expression) Spelling, grammar and punctuation of a high standard. Superior expression.
9. Referencing and bibliography
Consistent, highly accurate use and detail of appropriate scholarly sources.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Point of View
Introduction
In all literary works, the choice of the point of view is a key feature that greatly influences how the message being passed is received by the reader. As such, authors always spend valuable time on selecting the best point of view that will perfectly portray their intended message. While there are several points of view, three major streams c n be identified, including the first person, the second person, and the third person points of view. In each category, authors have always invented subcategories, for instance, the first person can further have such stems as the first person protagonist, the first person witness, and the first person re-teller. Similarly, the third person can constitute of the third person omnipresent, third person objective, and third person limited. All the above mentioned points of view and their subcategories have specific situations or story settings where they are best suited, and it is on this basis that scholars make a choice. The following paper critically identifies and appreciates the use of various points of view in two stories, The Fire Eaters, by David Almond, and Ursula Dubosarsky’s The Red Shoe.
Brief Overview of the Two Stories
In order to clearly understand the use and effect of the points of view in the two stories, it is imperative that a brief plot and narration be made. David Almond, in The Fire Eaters, writes the story of a world that feels threatened. The setting is around the Northumberland Coast. Robert Burns is one of the residents of this area. He is the adult narrator, who now looks back to the occurrences that surrounded one autumn when he felt the end of childhood threatened. Bobby Burns has quite recently turned eleven years old. He has had a radiant summer, coming from a tour to the city with his mother. He met Mcnulty there, a smashed soul, bringing home the bacon turning traps for the customers as a strongman fire-eater. There is something about Mcnulty, yet Bobby simply cannot express it in words. He feels some force, there is power however there is additionally an astonishing pity and much dejection (Cooper 1297). What is more for Bobby, this gathering with Mcnulty has a significant impact, for it matches with numerous changes in his own, happy and lucky, adolescent life.
Robert is eleven or more and is going to start at the primary school, a shockingly disheartening foundation, brimming with order and flogging. This training will certainly remove him from the nearby, yet poor group in which he exists. His most established companionship, with Joseph an insubordinate neighborhood kid, specifically, is getting to be strained and strained. His adoration for Ailsa, a coal-scrounger’s girl, feels as if it is under risk from an approaching, disconnect prospect. Bobby’s father is secretively sick. Furthermore out of sight, the Cuban Missile emergency spreads a wet billow of hopelessness and fear in all areas of his life (Crow’s Nest NSW par 5). It appears to be as though all that he knows and affections including the extremely world itself is in incredible danger. There are numerous devils, both private and open, for him to stand up to.
The Red Shoe, on the other hand, is the story of three young ladies, matured 6, 11 and 15, living in a remote house at Palm Beach in the 1950′s. Matilda is the most youthful, then there is Frances, who is declining to go to class, and Elizabeth, enduring a mental breakdown. The story is told from the point of view of Matilda, the most youthful sister, and Dubosarsky has caught the six year old perspective skillfully. One interesting component is Matilda’s nonexistent companion, Floreal. He is not the regular change personality; however is a 22 year old Argonaut who has left the radio. As opposed to being ameliorating, he is regularly limited and mocking, however he serves to be an editorial on occasions she does not understand. The disconnected nature of the book comes on the grounds that Matilda’s adolescent personality is regularly depicting occasions outside her ability to grasp.
We, as readers, are offered signs to these outside occasions utilizing the gadget of intertextuality. The book incorporates portions from the Sydney Morning Herald from April eighth to 30th, 1954. These daily paper articles concern the Petrov Affair, Einstein and the Atomic Bomb, the Cold War and the polio plague of the time.
There are three fundamental plot lines, which are joined in ‘The Red Shoe’. These are the lives of the three young ladies, their guardians’ relationship and the legislative issues of the outside world. Dubosarsky skillfully intertwines these by utilizing suggestive symbolism including red shoes. There are the red shoes of Hans Christian Anderson’s tall tale, told toward the start of the book to Matilda, the red shoes of their mother, and the red shoe of the wife of Russian spy, Vladimir Petrov. This symbolism inspires a climate of premonition and secret. We feel more that something frightful is going to happen.
I feel that this book has a more constrained gathering of people than a percentage of the others on the short rundown. It is suggested for development under studies and progressed readers. Likewise, it would presumably claim more to young ladies than young men. Grown-ups who existed in the time of the fifties will appreciate remembering the historical backdrop of that period.
The Point of View
The point of view of The Fire Eaters is the first person. The novel is, therefore, told in the form of first forms of words like I, our, and us. The story is also told in the first point of view in the form of a child. While Burns is already a child, he does not look at the events surrounding his novel in the eyes of an adult (Boardman 19). Instead, he makes use of this child in the book as a strategy both to win the acceptance of children and in his bid to win the feelings of his readers. In doing this, he has succeeded, since the use of first person is usually very effective in instances where the author would like to keep a safe distance away from the main actor, and not get mixed up in the things that might seem impossible to do for the protagonist. The inability of this point of view to see the bigger picture is exhaustively utilized by Almond to bring out an intricately organized narration of events, which basically qualify the story effective.
Like in the case of The Fire Eaters, The Red Shoes is written in the first person point of view of a child. The novel is friendlier to children than The Fire Eaters. It uses a language that is easy to understand and one that is involving to the child. By using the first person point of view, Almond shares stories that are close to the child’s heart. He tells us about the fears of the child (Boardman 19). The reader does not see the politics of the time in the eyes of an adult. Instead, he cultivates the point of view of a child throughout the novel.
Almond’s third person point of view gives the writer hope that the main character has survived the events that surround him. While the atmosphere of the novel is tense, there is hope that things will be all right. The reader only reads on to see what is lost in the process and to see how the loss was escaped.
By Dubosarsky’s using the third person point of view, the main character can ask questions and get them answered. Matilda who is at the center of the novel shares with the reader her likes and dislikes and still move on with the story. At the end of the introduction, we are left at a point where we either compromise or not compromise with Matilda about the death of Karen. She feels that Karen’s going to heaven is not a good ending. To her, it implies that Karen died. She is also not comfortable with the concept of having Karen not being allowed to wear her shoes. This way, she expresses her disgust about the injustices of the story without affecting its progress.
By using the first person point of view, Almond helps us to share the story with the narrator. The reader gets the feeling of having a controlling point of view in the narrator’s hands. The reader gets firsthand information, about the context of the novel (Adams 324). Them being memories of childhood, they risk being both baseless and dear to the writers heart.
“The Red Shoe” is a mind-blowing story with the child’s perspective at its core. Set around Easter 1954 and thinking again to a critical occasion of the past Boxing Day, we see a family in a period of emergency. There are three girls matured 6, 11 and 15, mother, father who is regularly missing on his boat, and Uncle Paul. Around them are reports of Russian spies, kids passing on of polio, and different Sydney homicides and misfortunes, caught in daily paper clippings put between a large portion of the parts (Dubosarsky 23). Yet, there is additionally the likelihood of heading off to the Royal Easter Show, family picnics, and excursions to the shoreline and school parades.
The shadow of the war is still there in the individual of their harmed father. His extravagant free sibling both helps and upsets their recuperating. At the same time for the most part, there is regular life, which each of the three girls manages in their own specific way. The youngster’s perspective provides for us misjudging, privileged insights, children’s stories, and fanciful companions and, on account of Elizabeth, calm pre-adult anxiety. Notwithstanding, at last the kids show information of reality past their cognizant comprehension. It is this hole that makes the story genuine and delicate.
Regardless of the youngster’s perspective, this story manages a few genuine issues. The father is experiencing the delayed consequences of trauma so his dejection and the stunning plausibility of suicide make dreadful scenery to the story. Thinking again on “The Red Shoe” is similar to review a vast woven artwork that uncovers more prominent profundities as you move from catching the 10,000-foot view, to researching each one definite corner (Baker 281). There is much to find here.
Both authors, while using different points of view make us aware of things that are important to children. For the most part, however, the stories do not merely deal with simple and mundane elements of life. Instead, the articles use a variety of themes, which include the issues like war, disease and death.
Conclusion
In conclusion, both texts have expressed a variety of perspectives through the use of different points of view. While using a child’s perspective, the two authors communicate grave matters of war, death, and disease. Duborsaky uses the second person point of view. Through this perspective, he takes us through the lives of various characters with an all-knowing attitude. He delves into their secret lives and shares them with us while at the same time keeping them from each other. He also takes us through the worries and fears of the main characters. This point of view serves to create a feeling of reality and close relationship between the narrator and the main character, which is a solid foundation of a reality novel. On the other hand, Almond uses a first person point of view. The first person point of view is relieving in the difficult times of the novel. We at least believe that he is alive to tell the story. The two authors, through their different points of view, do not hesitate to share the most important matters to children. Issues like family and love are kept in the middle of their stories. Ultimately, each novel succeeds in portraying the exact message that was intended to the audience, by merely choosing the correct point of view to use in each instance.
Works Cited
Adams, Lauren. “David Almond The Fire-Eaters.” The Horn Book Magazine 2004: 324. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Baker, Deirdre F. “Ursula Dubosarsky: The Red Shoe.” The Horn Book Magazine 2007: 281. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Boardman, Edna. “Almond, David. The Fire-Eaters.” Kliatt 2006: 19. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Cooper, Ilene. “Almond, David. The Fire-Eaters.” Booklist 2004: 1297. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Crow’s Nest NSW Dubosarsky, Ursula. The Red Shoe. Crow’s Nest NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2006. Discovery eBooks. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Dubosarsky, Ursula 1961–. n.p.: 2014. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Dubosarsky, Ursula. The Red Shoe. n.p.: Allen & Unwin, 2006. Bibliotheksverbund Bayern. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Gordon, Suzanne. “Dubosarsky, Ursula. The Red Shoe.” School Library Journal 2007: 142. Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Kirkus Reviews “Almond, David The Fire-Eaters.” 2004: 323. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Kirkus Reviews “Dubosarsky, Ursula: THE RED SHOE.” 2007: Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Practically Primary “The Red Shoe.” 2 (2008): 44. Academic OneFile. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Publishers Weekly “The Red Shoe.” 2007: 94. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
The Christian Century “The Fire-Eaters.” 25 (2004): 24. Academic OneFile. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
The Horn Book Magazine Almond, David. “The Fire-Eaters.” 2005: 31. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
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