The Shack P PDF

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The Shack essay on point of view...

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1 ENG 2D1 Wednesday, September 23, 2015 The View of a Story Wm. Paul Young’s novel The Shack  is narrated in the view of third person limited. The narrator is telling the story of Mackenzie (Mack) Allen Philip. He or she is aware of Mack’s thoughts and feelings, but not anyone else’s. Throughout the story the narrator refers to Mack as ‘him’ or ‘he’ as shown when the narrator states, “he spent the better part of the morning telecommuting” (Young 14). As the narrator does not refer to Mack as ‘I’ or ‘me’, the story is henceforth not told in first person point of view. By using the word “he” the reader can infer that the narrator is telling a story about only one character that is someone other than themselves. Telling a story of someone else would be classified as telling a story in third person point of view. In specific, this novel is in limited point of view as the narrator only expresses what Mack is thinking and feeling during the story. For instance, “Mack stiffened as a wave of nausea rolled over him and then just as quickly mutated into anger”(Young 16). The narrator is directly telling the reader what Mack is experiencing emotionally in terms of “nausea” and “anger”. Since these feelings did not have to be expressed through a sentence that Mack says, the narrator has insight into his thoughts. However, the narrator does not have insight into other character’s thoughts hence classifying the novel as third person limited point of view. When the narrator writes in this point of view, it is easy to build an image of the character. The reader tends to side with a character that is morally correct and portrays the better traits of humanity. Through this behaviour, the narrator can make the reader sympathize with the characters or feel hostile towards them, depending on how they portray the character to be. Mack is displayed to be a kind

2 and intelligent father that has gone through a terrible loss, making the reader feel compassion towards him. This point of view is commonly used in writing stories, whether it is a novel or a short story. For instance, the short story The Possibility of Evil b y Shirley Jackson is also in third person limited point of view. In this story, the narrator also refers to the main character, Miss.Strangeworth as ‘she’ and ‘her’, making it in third person. Also, just like The Shack , the narrator is only aware of Miss.Strangeworth’s thoughts, and the reader has to infer about other characters feelings through their actions. Since the narrator is only aware of the thoughts of Miss.Strangeworth and no other character, this makes the short story third person limited point of view. In both texts, the narrators tell a story in the same version of point of view, because they are telling the story about someone else. When the narrator chooses to tell a story in this view, he or she is biased and unreliable as only one side of the story is explored. The narrator only expresses the main characters thoughts and feelings jarring the reader from accessing opposing views and thoughts. For example, in The Possibility of Evil , the reader is told how Miss.Strangeworth inflicts harm on the members of her town. However, the reader does not know if what the narrator says is true and if the citizens are actually harmed. The narrator makes it sound like Miss.Strangeworth is successfully hurting others, but no actual facts or proof is provided. If the narrator provides access to characters thoughts from both sides of the story, the reader would have a clearer, more knowledgeable, and unbiased source of information. Through many examples and insights, the reader knows that this novel is told in the view of third person limited....