Why I Live At The Po Point Of View

Every story has a narrator who presents the action from a particular point of view. The point of view determines who is telling the story, who it is about, and what information the reader is reading. Essentially, the point of view is the “eyes” through which a story is told. When determining point of view, it is important to know whether the events of the story are being interpreted by the author or by one of the characters. Also it is important to be able to understand and recognize voice and focus. There are four types of point of views the narrator can be, which are, third person limited, third person omniscient, third person objective or dramatic, and first person. Third person limited point of view is when the “a story in which the author
associates with major or minor character; this character serves as the author’s spokesperson or mouthpiece” (Elements of Fiction). Third person omniscient point of view is “a story told by the author, using the third person; the author’s knowledge, control, and prerogatives are unlimited; authorial subjectivity” (Elements of Fiction). Third person objective or dramatic is “the opposite of the omniscient; displays authorial objectivity; compared a roving sound camera. Very little of the past or the future is given; the story is set in the present” (Elements of Fiction). Lastly, first person point of view is when “the author identifies with or disappears in a major or minor character; the story is told using the first person “I” ” (Elements of Fiction). Reading from the first person point of view perspective, the reader is limited to only experiencing the story through the narrator’s descriptions. The following three stories that have good examples of first person point of view are “A&P”, “Why I Live at the P.O.”, and “A Rose For Emily”.
“A&P” by John Updike “is a short initiation story in which the young protagonist, in a gesture of empty heroism, quits his job at the supermarket because the manager has embarrassed three girls—and learns just "how hard the world was going to be to him hereafter" (Peck). This short story is narrated by a 19 year old cashier at the A&P, Sammy. By having Sammy tell the story, the reader knows a lot about his thoughts, feelings, observations, and actions. The technique that Updike used was using first person by having Sammy tell the story from his point of view and what he thought about the girls. Sammy is a perfect example of an unreliable narrator because even though he seems to be telling the readers the truth, it is only as he sees it, so this makes his point of view limited. If Updike chose to tell the story from Lengel’s, Queenie’s, or Stokesie’s point of view, it would have been a very different story.
“Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty is “ an extended dramatic monologue told by Sister to an unnamed visitor to the post office, where she now lives after having left her home because of the return of her sister Stella-Rondo.
As the title suggests, the story is an apologia in which Sister attempts to explain why she has decided to live in the post office of the small town of China Grove, where she is postmistress. The first line of the story establishes the problem quite clearly: "I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just separated from her husband and came back home again" (May). This story is told only from Sister’s point of view, and it portrays Stella as being spoiled and trying to turn everyone against her. “Thus, the plot of the story is minimal, even trivial. In fact, trivia is what seems to characterize this extended monologue, for it is difficult for the reader to take seriously any of the events of the story that Sister tells. The reader feels superior to the characters in the story, as is typical of comedy, because he or she can laugh at the foolishness of the values they embody” (May). The author uses a first person point of view to evoke a sense of sympathy from the
reader.
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, is about the town telling the story of “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant-a combined gardener and cook-had seen in at least ten years. By using the first-person plural, the narrator's turn their thoughts and opinions into widely held beliefs. The collective gives the story a power that couldn't be achieved in any other way” (Miller). The point of view for this story is interesting because the reader does not really know who the narrator actually is. The reader was never told whether the narrator was male or female, old or young, and many more. The narrator clearly was never identified. The character of the narrator however used the word “we” as a person, who changes his/her mind about Emily quite often. The narrator also jumps from his/her views to the town views. The author uses a first person point of view to create a sense of closeness with the reader and the story.
In conclusion, “A&P”, “Why I Live at the P.O.”, and “A Rose For Emily”, are all good examples of short stories to represent first person point of view. Many short stories are written in the first-person point of view. In these kind of short stories, the reader can picture inside a character’s head, watching the story unfold through that character’s eyes.