CH 3 Literature Focus: Narrator and Point of View
The narrator is the person who relates the events of a story to a reader or audience.
Point of view is the perspective from which a story is told. The point of view from
which a story is told determines how the reader interprets the story and understands
the characters. There are three main types of point of view:
First Person: narrator is a character in the story; uses the first person “I” to tell the story
Third Person Limited: narrator does not participate in the action of the story; relates
the thoughts and feelings of only one character
Third Person Omniscient: narrator does not participate in the action of the story; relates
the thoughts and feelings of more than one of the characters in the story
Animal Farm is told from the third person omniscient point of view, which allows the
reader to see into the minds of characters and gain a better understanding of their
true opinions of the happenings of Animal Farm. The narrator is a creature who has
no part in the story, and tells the story of Animal Farm objectively. As a result, the
reader is able to understand the true situation throughout the story, even while the
animals have a limited view and/or do not understand what is happening.
One of the most effective and powerful aspects of Animal Farm is the objective tone of
the (mostly) neutral narrator. The narrator rarely makes judgments; it rarely takes
sides. The narrator mostly reports the events as a reporter would report the news.
