What point of view is

A term you'll meet in narrative perspective.

Point of view (POV) is the perspective from which a story is told — the vantage point that controls what the reader can know, see, and feel. It's one of the most consequential choices a writer makes, because it decides the boundaries of the entire narrative.

First person

In first-person narration, a character tells the story using "I." We get their voice, their intimacy, and their bias — but we're trapped inside their knowledge. First person is powerful for closeness and is the natural home of the unreliable narrator, since we only ever have one person's account.

Second person

Second-person narration addresses the reader as "you," casting you as a character. Rare and unsettling, it creates immediacy and implication — used in experimental fiction and in works like Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller.

Third person: limited vs omniscient

In third-person narration ("he," "she," "they"), the key distinction is reach. A limited third person stays close to one character's perceptions; an omniscient narrator knows everything — every character's thoughts, the past and future, the whole world. Omniscience offers scope; limitation offers intensity.

How to read for it

Identify the POV early, then ask what it lets you know and, crucially, what it keeps from you. Every perspective is also a set of blind spots — and a skilled writer chooses the vantage point that makes those blind spots matter.

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