So, for example, the working premise would be that in a first-person story, the I who is the narrator is the same individual and has the identical point of view as the I who is the main character, or that in a limited-third-person narration, the reader receives only the immediate perspective of the he or she main character-in either case, first person or third person, the writer would seem to be allowed to tell the reader only what the character directly experienced and knew at the time of the events or knew from an earlier time. Likewise, student writers often work with the unexamined premise that a story’s narrative point of view is identical to the point of view of the primary character. Or, if it is to be shifted, it is to be done only at a major transition-a chapter break in a book or at the line space between sections of a story, for instance. For many student writers, point of view may seem a monolithic or mechanical apparatus, not easily moved once put in place, and best left alone. While correct in principle, and often in practice, this teaching has led to general misunderstandings and oversimplifications of point of view. The explanation given for the rule is that if point of view is not maintained consistently, the reader will be disoriented and the story’s necessary illusion of reality will be ruined. In English and creative writing classes over the past fifty years, students have often been instructed that once a particular point of view has been established in a story, that point of view should never be deviated from or broken.
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