Moral Messages? - Part 1: Point of View and How It Affects Your Stories -Daily Controversy #5

Good evening, and thanks for stopping by!

Joanna here for my very first post on this blog!  Seeing as I have been tasked with the momentous honor of writing a Daily Controversy, let’s dive right in.

This controversy is the first part of a two-part miniseries.  The second part will be published sometime on Wednesday- I will update this post when it comes out.

Think about it.  Does the point of view (POV) your story is written in affect its messages?

Before we go on, we first need to define our terms (apologies, my speech and debate sense is kicking in). 

Quick disclaimer: because very few people write in or even enjoy reading second person POV I will not be covering it in this post.

1. What is first person POV?

1. This site defines first person as: 

“The grammatical category of forms that designate a speaker or writer referring to himself or herself. Examples of forms in the first person include English pronouns such as I and we and verb forms such as Spanish hablo ‘I speak.’”

2. For example — “I write a letter to a friend.  Sealing it with wax, I then send it through the post office.”

3. Another way of writing this would be — “I wrote a letter to a friend.  I sealed it with wax and then sent it through the post office.”

4. Those are both perfectly correct ways of writing in first person POV.

Personally I prefer writing in the latter style (example 2) which I call “first person past.”

I will detail later how this affects your story.  But first:

2. What is third person POV?

This gets a little trickier and more complicated.  Why?  Because there are actually three types of third person POV.

1. This site broadly defines third person as:

“The grammatical category of forms that designate a person or thing other than the speaker or the one spoken to. Examples of forms in the third person include English pronouns such as she and they and verb forms such as Spanish hablan ‘they speak.’”

2. Third person omniscient — this is defined here with:

“Omniscient means "all-knowing," and likewise an omniscient narrator knows every character’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations even if that character doesn’t reveal any of those things to the other characters.”

3. Third person limited — the same source defines this as:

“In third-person limited narration, the narrator still exists outside the events of the story, but does not know the motivations or thoughts of all the characters. Rather, one character is the driver of the story, and the reader is given a closer peek into that character’s psyche than the others.”

4. Third person objective — once again the above source was consulted for defining terms:

“In third-person objective narration, the narrator reports the events that take place without knowing the motivations or thoughts of any of the characters. We know little about what drives them until we hear them speak or observe their actions. The resulting tone is often matter-of-fact, not colored by any opinions or commentary, nor of knowledge of what takes place outside the scene.”

I prefer writing in either “first person past” or third person limited (though I occasionally write in a mix of 3rd person limited and 3rd person omniscient).

With these definitions in mind, let’s see how POV affects the story.

POV shapes how the reader views the character

When reading first person the reader often identifies and sympathizes more with the main character.  This can lead the reader to overlook, accept or even condone flaws and immoral views/actions on the character’s part.  This can also happen when a story is written in third person limited (however, I believe this is more likely in 1st person).

1. You might be thinking, who would fall for that?  I would–I have before.  And it’s not just me.  This can be used for good, however (see later points in the following section).

2. For example, take Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland (written in third person limited).  Whatever else you might think of the series, please consider this (if you disagree please do not click away, but comment your thoughts below): as a former hardcore superfan, I found it disturbing that no one–neither fans nor haters–talks about how one of the main characters effectively murders her father and lies to her mother about it.

Disclaimer: I have read extensively in the series, including spinoff/side series.

Wait, who did that again?  I kinda forgot seeing as the event was brushed off.  Oh, right, Tsunami, one of the most beloved characters.  Yes, she killed a dragon who was later to be revealed to be her father mostly in self-defense, but that in no way justifies Tsunami lying to her mother about his death and justifying it because he was seemingly insane.  In fact, judging by how he went “insane” (water deprivation), it seems as though this could have been cured by reintroducing him to his home (yes, this would be highly unlikely to happen but it still could have restored to Tsunami not just her mother–but her father too).  Another thing: Tsunami was the one who provoked/started the fight.  She leapt at the other dragon with a resolve to kill him before he even made a move.

So, is writing from a particular character’s POV bad?  Should authors only use third person Omniscient and/or objective to avoid spreading bad messages?

No.  And here’s why.

POV can give or take away deeper levels of the story

1. While POV does affect your story’s messages, it cannot remove them/make them out of thin air.  It only exacerbates or shrinks what’s already present.

2. Writing in a particular character’s POV can provide a whole new level of the story that is deep and really evokes reader empathy.

3. For example – Dreaded King by Catherine Gruben Smith was written in third person limited and despite being set in a fantasy world, it felt so real to me.  I can’t really describe it but the closest thing I can think of is “real.”  The main character Charlie truly felt like a real human being and I empathized with him in so many ways.

That said, what is the point of this article?  What am I trying to say in the first place?

POV can affect your story in many ways, but choosing the right POV for your story is only half the battle.  The other half has to do with the characters themselves.

I’ll be going over how your POV character can affect your story’s messages just as much if not more than the POV itself when I release part 2 of the miniseries “Moral Messages?” on Wednesday (Jan/24/22).

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my ramblings–I can’t wait to see you when I publish part 2!

— Joanna ❤

Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments!

Photo credits: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e5/82/56/e58256e049d0d5a6efb6308ad5d4ad60.jpg