MORE LITERARY ELEMENTS

POINT OF VIEW

Literature provides a lens through which readers look at the world. Point of view is the way the author allows you to "see" and "hear" what's going on. Skillful authors can fix their readers' attention on exactly the detail, opinion, or emotion the author wants to emphasize by manipulating the point of view of the story.

Point of view comes in three varieties, which the English scholars have handily numbered for your convenience:

1. First-person point of view is in use when a character narrates the story with I-me-my-mine in his or her speech. The advantage of this point of view is that you get to hear the thoughts of the narrator and see the world depicted in the story through his or her eyes. However, remember that no narrator, like no human being, has complete self-knowledge or, for that matter, complete knowledge of anything. Therefore, the reader's role is to go beyond what the narrator says.

2. Second-person point of view, in which the author uses "you" and "your", is rare; authors seldom speak directly to the reader. When you encounter this point of view, pay attention. Why? The author has made a daring choice, probably with a specific purpose in mind. Most times, second-person point of view draws the reader into the story, almost making the reader a participant in the action.

3. Third-person point of view is that of an outsider looking at the action. The writer may choose third-person omniscient, in which the thoughts of every character are open to the reader, or third-person limited, in which the reader enters only one character's mind, either throughout the entire work or in a specific section. Third-person limited differs from first-person because the author's voice, not the character's voice, is what you hear in the descriptive passages.

SYMBOLISM

Without symbolism, something essential is missing from language and art. Symbols allow authors to impart ideas above and beyond the literal level of the text. A symbol represents, or stands in place of, something else.

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FIGURES OF SPEECH

A figure of speech is a literary device that achieves a special effect by using words in distinctive ways. Though there are hundreds of figures of speech here we'll focus on just 10 of the most common figures.

1. METAPHOR

• A concise way of comparing two usually unlike things, saying that one IS the other
• "My love is a red, red, rose." Love = Rose
• X -is- Y

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• Common expressions such "falling in love," "racking our brains," "hitting a sales target," and "climbing the ladder of success" are all metaphors

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances."

(William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7)

2. SIMILE

• comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as". It takes the form of: X is (not) like Y X is (not) as Y X is (not) similar to Y
• "My love is LIKE a red, red rose."

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