Point of View

Point of view is the narrative perspective from which a story is told. Most common points of view include first person and third person. In a first-person story, the narrator is commonly referred to as "I," and she reveals the story from her own perspective and mind. In a third-person narration, the narrative unfolds either from the perspective of an omniscient narrator who can tell the reader everything that is going on with every one of the characters, or from an impersonal voice that merely report events from all perspectives. Beattie, however, in "Imagined Scenes," creates yet another point of view. Although her unnamed narrator is not an "I," the story is limited to her perspective entirely. Indeed, it is this choice that gives the story its distinctive quality. The reader is limited to seeing, hearing, touching, thinking, and feeling what the narrator does. The reader...