The document discusses different types of narrative styles in literature, including limited and omniscient narration. It explains how these styles affect storytelling, detailing specific narrator types like detached observers, commentators, interviewers, secret characters, and unreliable narrators. Examples from classic literature illustrate each type, emphasizing the role of the narrator in shaping a reader's understanding of the story.

1. LIMITED & OMNISCIENT
NARRATION
MS. BEAULIEU
HALL DALE MIDDLE SCHOOL
ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS
Saturday, March 5, 14

2. LIMITED NARRATION
A SINGLE CHARACTER (TYPICALLY THE MAIN CHARACTER)
TELLS THE STORY.
THIRD PERSON LIMITED: MORE
RESTRICTIVE, BUT CAN INCREASE
SUSPENSE AND INTRIGUE
(YOU FIND OUT ABOUT THE STORY AS THE
CHARACTERS DO!)
Saturday, March 5, 14

3. OMNISCIENT NARRATION
AN ALL-KNOWING NARRATOR TELLS THE
STORY.
ALLOWS US TO PEEK INTO THE LIVES AND
MINDS OF ALL OF THE CHARACTERS.
WE GET A MORE IN DEPTH VIEW TO THE WHOLE PICTURE.
Saturday, March 5, 14

4. TYPES OF NARRATORS
DETACHED OBSERVER: TELLS THE
STORY & NEVER GIVES THEIR OPINION
THE COMMENTATOR: NEVER PHYSICALLY
ENTERS THE STORY BUT IS FREE WITH
COMMENTARY
EXAMPLE OF A COMMENTATOR:
The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a
half-recumbent attitude, found himself face-to-face with the unearthly visitor
who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the
spirit at your elbow.
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
Saturday, March 5, 14

5. MORE EXAMPLES...
THE INTERVIEWER: HAS COLLECTED
DETAILS OF THE STORY AFTER IT
HAPPENED
EXAMPLE OF AN INTERVIEWER:
It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound. Edmund and Eustace
would never talk about it afterwards. Lucy could only say, “It would break your
heart.” “Why,” said I, “was it so sad?” “Sad! No,” said Lucy.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis
Saturday, March 5, 14

6. JUST TWO MORE, I SWEAR.
THE SECRET CHARACTER: PRETENDS TO BE
REMOVED FROM THE STORY - TYPICALLY THEIR
IDENTITY IS REVEALED AT THE END
EXAMPLE OF A SECRET CHARACTER:
“Lemony?” Violet repeated. “They would have named me Lemony? Where did
they get that idea?”
“From someone who died, presumably,” Klaus said.
The End, by Lemony Snicket
Saturday, March 5, 14

7. LAST ONE!
UNRELIABLE NARRATOR:
BIASED, MISINFORMED, INSANE,
ETC.
THEIR POINT OF VIEW IS FLAWED, SO WE DON’T
KNOW IF WE ARE GETTING THE WHOLE (TRUE)
STORY...
EXAMPLES:
HOLDEN CAULFIELD - THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
MELINDA - SPEAK
THE NARRATOR IN FIGHT CLUB
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8. SOURCES
HTTP://BEKINDREWRITE.COM/2011/09/09/THE-7-NARRATOR-TYPES-ANDYOU-THOUGHT-THERE-WERE-ONLY-TWO/
HTTP://WWW.CLA.PURDUE.EDU/ENGLISH/THEORY/NARRATOLOGY/
HTTP://FLAVORWIRE.COM/410468/10-OF-LITERATURESMOST-UNRELIABLE-NARRATORS/3/
HTTP://WWW.SURVIVINGCOLLEGE.COM/11-MEMESMORGAN-FREEMANS-BIRTHDAY/
Saturday, March 5, 14