Jhenna Lebrasseur
Professor Tague
ENGH 201
28 November 2016
The Effects of a Narrator
Third person point of view is a version of storytelling that involves the narrator referring to all characters in third person pronouns. The Running Man by Stephen King and Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino are both stories that are written in third person, and will be used as examples for this essay. The Running Man is a story about a man named Ben Richards, who in an effort to earn money for his family and get medicine for his ill daughter, goes onto the Games Network’s most popular game show called The Running Man. The game and basically the entire action-packed story is about Richards’s struggle to survive as he is declared an enemy of state and is hunted by the Games Network’s huntsmen, police, and even the citizens. Mr. Palomar on the other hand is a novel about an old man named Mr. Palomar and his philosophical observations of the world which he tries to make sense of. The authors use third person point of view to create an overall better reading experience for their audiences.
Third person narrators give more detail for the story’s setting. Rather than only being able to see through one set of eyes, it is almost as if a third person narrator has a god’s eye view and is able to see and provide descriptions for everything around the character or characters. Even in the opening of The Running Man there’s already great scenery, “She was squinting at the thermometer in the white light coming through the window. Beyond her, in the drizzle, the other high rises in Co-Op City rose like the gray turrets of a penitentiary. Below, in the airshaft, clotheslines flapped with ragged wash. Rats and plump alley cats circulated through the garbage.” It creates a better illustration and in turn produces better imagery for the reader. It is similar in Mr. Palomar because Calvino really puts a heavy prominence on the scenes within the story. However, there is definitely different word choices between the two stories in terms of what the authors use to describe the scenes. Calvino uses more vivid vocabulary, for example “As the sun sinks toward sunset, the incandescent-white reflection acquires gold and copper tones.” Setting is a very important element of a story, it is where everything takes place. Different settings have different effects on stories and can create a completely different feeling if it is changed. This is why it is important for authors to create the perfect setting and for narrators to express it in a way that complies with the story.
A third person narrator provides an unbiased view of the characters within a story. By referring to everyone in third person pronouns, it creates a distance between the characters and the narrator. It does not feel like the narrator is playing a part in the story themselves, rather they are merely just telling a story. Therefore, the narrator does not portray the characters in any biased way, leaving it to the reader to analyze the characters themselves. The reader then can develop their own theories and opinions about the characters. For example, in The Running Man, the narrator tells the story and the typical reader would decide that Ben Richards is the protagonist who is seen as “good” by the readers and Damon Killian is the antagonist working against him. On the contrary in the actual story itself Ben Richards is not portrayed as the protagonist, rather the antagonist, and vice versa with Damon Killian who is not portrayed as the antagonist. In Mr. Palomar however, this concept is not the same because there is no protagonist nor antagonist, it is more of just a story about a man’s life, but there is still a distance between the characters and the narrator, as well as an unbiased view.
Action within a story is one of the most important components, and it happens to usually be the main focus of a third person narrative. By utilizing third person point of view, all the details are included and nothing is left out. Even if multiple things are happening simultaneously because of the notion of “god’s eye view” that third person narrators are gifted with. The action is also immediate, almost like the narrator is a reporter at the scene giving live updates on the developing story. In The Running Man, King uses a third person narrator to intensify the action. It is practically necessary to have a narrator that is not a character tell the story so that the reader is aware of everything regardless of whether the characters are or not, including dramatic irony which is only possible in third person narratives. A good example of this would be when Ben Richards basically blows up the YMCA’s basement, “He made slow, molelike progress for about fifty yards through the horizontal pipe, backing up blindly. Then the oil tank in the Y’s basement suddenly blew with a roar that set up enough sympathetic vibrations in the pipes to nearly rupture his eardrums.”
Third person narrators tell the story clearly and objectively. There is no bias, the story is told as is and focuses on the actual story itself rather than anything that is irrelevant, for example a character’s thoughts. The intention of third person narratives is to emphasize the story itself, make it appealing to the audience meaning it must be clear in order for them to understand what is going on and there is no confusion. In Mr. Palomar, Calvino uses noncomplex calming words to express Mr. Palomar’s encounters like when he is on the beach, “Mr. Palomar sees a wave rise in the distance, grow, approach, change form and color, fold over itself, break, vanish, and flow again.” Using a third person narrator to tell this story simplifies everything and allows the reader to contemplate the possible meanings of the encounters. The book overall was actually quite relaxing but also intriguing. This is also quite similar in The Running Man because King manages to keep all the action immediate but also very clear and focused, making it much more interesting for the reader.
A third person narrator is trustworthy and reliable. Third person narrators are much more honest, as there is not much of a way nor a reason for them to deceive or lie to the reader because they are just telling a story. This is a major difference between third person narratives and other narratives, for example first person which allows for the narrator to create a connection and deceive the reader because of the connection. In The Running Man, Richards tries to tell the public the truth about the Network, but the Network talks over what he says and instead incorporates profanity and threats into his video message, which outraged the public even more. It definitely would have been different if this was told in first person point of view because there is a possibility that Richards could be lying, but since it is in third person point of view and someone else is telling the story it is much more believable.
The Running Man and Mr. Palomar despite being very different stories and having different qualities, are both great examples of stories written in third person point of view and actually have a few similarities. Because of all of these characteristics third person narratives have, it provides the reader with a better reading experience. The setting is illustrated, the story is objective and unbiased, the action is immediate, and very importantly the narrator is reliable. These all are ingredients to not only make a good story in general, but a good story that the audience will appreciate and enjoy reading.