Point of View
When we are reading a story, it’s important to know who is telling the story. Is it the main character? Another character in the story? An all-knowing voice beyond the story?
This is the point of view. It’s important to know who’s point of view the story is being told from in order to think critically about how their perspective may color the narrative. The same story told from another point of view might look different.
To really understand a story it’s important to consider it from multiple perspectives.
Types of POV
Point of view refers to who is telling or narrating a story. A story can be told from the first person, second person or third person point of view (POV). Writers use POV to express the personal emotions of either themselves or their characters.
The POV of a story is how the writer wants to convey the experience to the reader. Reviewing point of view examples for each type is a great way to understand the different approaches.
In Our Story
The Wild Robot is told in the third person point of view through the eyes of an omniscient narrator. While the narrator is never given a name, the narrator tells the story of Roz as she comes to the island, but he also directly addresses the reader many times throughout the novel. Interjection at these different points makes the reader sympathize with the main character Roz.
This is done for two reasons. First, directly addressing the reader creates an intimate setting, as though the narrator is telling the story to the reader in person. Second, the narrator usually addresses the reader when important contextual information is being given. This ties into the narrator’s omniscience, knowing everything at all times even when the characters of the novel do not.
The narrator’s tone is almost whimsical, as shown early on in the novel. They write, “clearly, Roz was designed to take orders, because her body automatically did as it was told”. When the narrator speaks to the reader directly, it is to inform them of something Roz does not know or remind them of a fact revealed in an earlier section.
