The narrator’s perspective often helps us understand a story from a certain standpoint. For instance, if a character in the story is narrating, we get a much deeper insight into how that character feels and thinks, however, the information we are given is usually limited only to what that character knows or understands about a situation. If the narrator is in the third person, usually the story will focus more on what is happening and will provide equal explanation of what a character thinks and feels. There are also distinct subcategories for every narration type.
For example, in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” the narrator feels like he is sitting at the table with the male and female main characters. The way he describes things is like he is seeing it from their view, and there is very little description of any location where our focus characters aren’t. “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.” This type of language makes it feel like the narrator has seen and felt what the characters are experiencing during the story.
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In Padgett Powell’s “Scarliotti and the Sinkhole,” the narrator feels like they know everything; more than someone can know just by being there. " 'Can I help you?' She asked. Scarliotti continued to wrestle with himself, looking like a horror movie hunchback to her." This narrator tells us things that the characters feel, whereas Hemingway tells us this through dialogue, something that a person nearby can hear. Powell is deeper into the scene than Hemingway.
Ultimately, the point of view mostly affects how the reader understands the story, not necessarily what happens in it. Things seem vaguer in “Hills Like White Elephants” because we don’t know what the characters are thinking aside from what they are saying out loud. We need to read between the lines to understand the meaning of what the characters say. In “Scarliotti and the Sinkhole,” we are often told the context and what characters think of each other. Each method has their benefits and can potentially add another layer of artistic value if used correctly.
