LitCourse 7
How to Read: Point of View
9

 

Narrator—1st person

As characters in a story who talk directly to readers, 1st-person narrators may have a special interest in getting us to see events their way.

Can you depend on this character to tell the truth, or even know the truth? A 1st-person narrator . . .

• may have a vested interest in presenting a particular version of the truth, or partial truth.
• may be out of the loop, knowing only part of the truth. Readers can know only as much as the "I" in the story knows—or chooses to tell us.