Transcription
Greetings and salutations students. In this episode, Mr. Armstrong teaches point of view: third person omniscient, limited omniscient, and objective. This is the second part of a two-part lesson that covers point of view. In the first video, I reviewed first person narration and second person narration. That one is required viewing before we get to third person narration. Let's not waste any more time. Let's dive right in.
First, with a definition of third person in general. What is third person narration? I'll show you. Go ahead and write this definition down. Third person narration is narration wherein the story is told about people by someone outside of the story, and this one uses third person pronouns. So, in first person, it was "I" or "we" pronouns. In second person, it was "you." And in this one, it's basically all the rest. It could be "he," "him," "his," "himself," "she," "her," "hers," "herself," "it," "its," "itself," "they," "them," "their," "theirs," and "themselves." I wrote them all down. You should too. But that's how third person narration works, and it is very common. It is so common, in fact, there are different versions of third person narration, and I'm gonna teach you about them now. Pause if you need to, because there's more definitions to come.
All right, the first type of third-person narration I want to look at is third-person omniscient. This is when the narrator knows everything about the story and can move through time freely. They can tell us what any character is thinking or feeling. They know everything about the story. In fact, that word, omniscient. Omniscient is a Latin word that means essentially all-knowing. Knows everything. And so, a third-person omniscient narrator is essentially like a god in the story. They know everything about everyone, every detail in the story, every point in time. They know it all, and they can tell us it all. That doesn't mean they will tell us everything. They're still trying to tell a good story, after all, and sometimes that means leaving out information to build tension. But they know everything. They could tell us anything. Third person omniscient.
Let's take a look at an example of this. All right, take a look at this first one. Boris was worried about the gray skies, but it wouldn't rain for another three weeks. His sister smiled. She was excited about the prospect of rain. She wanted to put on her new boots and stomp around in puddles. Her mother hated it, but she didn't care. All right, so there's a few clues in this short little passage. First of all, the narrator knows what people are thinking. The narrator knows first that Boris is worried, later that his sister is excited. The narrator also told us that it wouldn't rain for three more weeks. That's a glimpse into the future. Once again, the narrator knows everything. There's also a mention to how the mother is feeling at the bottom. But basically, this narrator can get inside of anyone's heads, anyone's emotions, and they know everything about the story.
Let's look at another example. The bear was hungry and searching for berries when the spaceship appeared. The aliens were curious and hovered just above the large mammal. They were seeking food too, and would never realize how much they had in common with the bear. So, once again, even though we have an animal in this one, the narrator knows what's going on with that animal because the narrator knows everything. The narrator is omniscient. The narrator also knows what's going on with these aliens and can draw some comparisons between this bear and these aliens. The narrator knows everything. Doesn't mean they'll tell us everything, but they know everything. And that's what an omniscient third person is.
Now, let's take a look at limited omniscient. Okay, third person limited omniscient is similar to omniscient, but it's limited. In these types of stories, the narrator tells us everything about a single character. We stick with the thoughts and feelings of one. This could change from chapter to chapter, having a different character being followed in each chapter, but the narrator is limited to knowing only one character's thoughts, feelings, etc. Essentially, we're kind of inside one character's head, and we follow that character around. We know what that character thinks, but we don't know what anyone else is thinking. We don't know what anyone else has going on inside. And so, it's limited to just one character. And once again, this can change in a book. Perhaps each chapter follows one particular character, right? You might have multiple main characters, or sometimes we stick with a side character in a chapter, but then we go back to the main character. So, this can shift and change within a story, but essentially, it means that the narrator is focused on one character's thoughts and emotions.
Let's look at some examples. Here we go. It was starting to get dark, and a chilly wind began to blow. Toby was frowning, but Yuki didn't know why. She was afraid. It was her fault, and in her mind, replayed all the things she had said to him. Then she noticed that he was looking at his hands. He was holding something. Yuki wondered if that was the source of his unhappiness. So, in this example, we have two different characters, Yuki and Toby. Toby seems to be upset, but all that we know about Toby is what can be observed, essentially what Yuki is observing about Toby. But we're inside Yuki's head. We know what Yuki is thinking, we know what Yuki is feeling, but we can only make guesses about Toby because, while this character is omniscient about Yuki, it is limited to Yuki, and we don't know about other characters. Omniscient, but limited.
Let's look at another example. This one's a little bit longer, and it features some dialogue. Catalina wanted a new sword. The door creaked when she entered the swordsmith shop, and the old smith turned to look at her. She thought he saw a helpless little girl. She used to be afraid of having to prove herself, but now she looked forward to it and was disappointed when he spoke. "Good afternoon, dragon slayer. I've been expecting you," he said and smiled. So, once again, while we have two characters in this scene, we only know what one of them is thinking, Catalina. We don't ever know what's inside the swordsmith's head for real. We might be able to guess based on what he says, based on his actions, but we don't know for sure like we do about Catalina. We also know a little bit about Catalina's past based on this. The narrator is omniscient about Catalina, knows everything about Catalina's story, but not other characters. So, this is once again third person limited omniscient. Got it?
All right, there's only one more type of third person narration that we're going to take a look at. Let's get to it. And lastly, third person objective. In third person objective narration, the narrator is neutral and can only explain what can be experienced with the senses. Can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched. No information is given about what the characters are thinking or feeling. This is almost like eavesdropping. We just observe a story. We don't actually get inside of anyone's heads. We don't know for sure what anyone is thinking or feeling. This is probably the one that's most like real life. We can never really know what people are thinking, what people are feeling, but sometimes we can observe interactions, and that's what this is like.
Let's take a look at some examples. Take a look at this one. A light breeze rustled the trees in the park. The old woman and young man sat on the bench in silence. They watched the ducks and occasionally smiled at what they saw. "Thank you for bringing me here," said the young man. "It's been too long." The old woman smiled and patted his knee. "For me too," she said. "It was your grandfather's favorite place." So, in this example, while we might be able to guess what these characters are thinking or feeling, we don't know for sure. Everything that is mentioned is just something that could be observed with your senses. The breeze and the trees, the two people sitting there, the smile on their face, the words that they speak. Any of this could be observed by any passerby. The narrator is not privy to the thoughts or emotions of these characters. They can just represent what is witnessed. It's totally objective. That's why we call this third person objective.
Let's take a look at just one more example. All right, Yusuf opened the bank vault and peered inside. His eyes opened wide, and his mouth spread into a big smile. There was a huge pile of gold bars stacked taller than he was. He ran to the pile, picked up a bar, and kissed it. The moment he stuck the bar into his bag, an alarm went off. He looked around wildly, then started stuffing more gold bars into his bag. In this example, there's only one character present. There's nobody there to actually witness what is going on, but still, the story is told in an objective fashion. The things that are related, the pieces of information that are given, are still restricted to what could be seen, heard, etc. We never know what Yusuf is thinking. We never know what Yusuf is feeling. We might be able to guess based on some of the things that are happening, based on some of his reactions, his facial expressions, the way that he behaves, but once again, this is totally objective. This is just as if someone had witnessed this and was relaying what they saw, what they witnessed. And this is third person objective. Got it?
I sure hope so, because [Applause] this one's over. This has been point of view: third person omniscient, limited omniscient, and objective. Remember, this is part two. If you haven't seen point of view: first person and second person, that might help with your understanding of third person. If you have watched both of them and you still have some questions, go ahead and post them in the comments below, and I will get back to you. If you have ideas about future videos you would like to see, post those in the comments below as well. I'd love to hear from you. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day, and I look forward to teaching you again very soon.