by PeggySue Wells @PeggySueWells
In Third Person Objective POV, the author narrates what happens without sharing the character’s thoughts or feelings.
This perspective is characterized by the pronouns He, She, and They.
In stories told in Third Person Objective POV, the narrator is a neutral entity, relying on observations of characters rather than seeing from the character's head. The tale is told as if the author is a fly on the wall, a mouse in the corner, or a non-participating person in the background who is free to observe.
Hemingway and Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway was a master of third-person objective POV. Because the narrator is not talking about himself, there is no “I” in the writing. The reader has access to the behavior of each character’s equally. The tale is told through a purely observational manner. In his short story, Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway writes this scene.
Hills Like White Elephants excerpt
The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid.
"What should we drink?" the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.
"It’s pretty hot," the man said.
"Let’s drink beer."
"Dos cervezas," the man said into the curtain.
"Big ones?" a woman asked from the doorway.
"Yes. Two big ones.”
Similarly Fitzgerald
Similarly, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in the Third Person Objective POV. Fitzgerald’s narrator, the “I” in the example below, is a man named Nick.
Though the central character of the book is Gatsby, the reader learns Gatsby’s story through the personal perspective of a nearby narrator.
Great Gatsby excerpt
When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.
Third Person Objective Titles
Other books penned in the Third Person Objective POV include
- Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
The advantage of writing in Third Person Objective POV include flexibility for the narrator who can move between the story's characters, employing close third person, limited, and omniscient points of view according to which one best serves the telling of the story in the most suspenseful angle.
Additionally, because the narrator is above the action, the Third Person Objective POV gives the storyteller an authoritative voice. With access to multiple angles, the storyteller has a 360-degree view of the story to weave a complex narrative that keeps the reader turning pages.
TWEETABLE
Action and adventure, romantic suspense, military romance, and cozy mystery are the page-turning novels by P.S. Wells including Chasing Sunrise, Homeless for the Holidays, and The Patent. How to live better, easier, and simpler is the focus of her nonfiction including The Ten Best Decisions A Single Mom Can Make.
PeggySue is a frequent guest with media including Focus On The Family, Family Life Today, and Christian Product Expo. She regularly teaches at conferences including Write To Publish, Taylor University Writers Conference, Kentucky Christian Writers Conference, and the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. Collaborator on multiple titles including books with Dr. Benjamin Hardy, Shemane Nugent, Pat Palau, and Pam Farrel, PeggySue is a writing coach. When not writing, she parasails, skydives, snorkels, scuba dives, rides horses, and has taken (but not passed) pilot training. Founder of SingleMomCircle.com, connect with PS Wells at WWW.PEGGYSUEWELLS.COM, on Facebook at PeggySue Wells, and LinkedIn at LINKEDIN.COM/IN/PEGGYSUEWELLS
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