by PeggySue Wells @PeggySueWells
Point of View signifies who is telling or narrating the story.
Occasionally, the reader is surprised to discover that the narrator is far from reliable. Yes, the narrator is relaying the tale but their POV is skewed. The slant can be caused from a variety of reasons.
Impaired Memory
Perhaps the narrator's memory is declining due to a long expanse of time between the event and the telling. Maybe the character is experiencing dementia or the onset of Alzheimer's.
Biased Opinion
The storyteller may have a strong motivation to tell the story with a calculated slant to manipulate the reader to believe, feel, and think a specified way about characters and events.
Mental Illness
Mental illness will color a storyteller's perspective of a story. Narrators who are narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths, have borderline personality disorder, or disorganized personality disorder will see the events, people, and the world differently from the rest of society who fall within the parameters of normalcy. A mentally ill narrator is a storytelling device leveraging a character's psychological instability and perception of reality to impact the narrative. This device is seen in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and in the books The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Mentally Impaired
People who have low or slow intelligence levels, young children who are naive, those unfamiliar, ignorant, or innocent regarding the setting they are in will be less than reliable as they relate their POV. Stories that incorporated the POV of mentally impaired characters include the film Peanut Butter Falcon, The Rain Man, and the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
Liars
Some people are compulsive liars. Others lie to protect themselves or to protect someone they deeply care about. The film, Usual Suspects, is a narration of lies that seem believable until the final moments when the viewer is made privy to what the narrator has been doing all along.
Control
Controlled narrations occur for a variety of reasons such as staging a strong reveal or surprise for the reader. The film Oceans 12 used a controlled sharing of events and information. At the conclusion, the viewer was shown a string of additional moves the team made behind the scenes to achieve their goal. Without this knowledge, it was impossible for the viewer to predict the ending.
An interesting POV that impacted history took place in England. Henry VII won the throne by defeating first King Richard IV, and then his brother, Richard III, in battle. Though the two youngest sons of Richard IV, the rightful heirs to the throne, were present at King Henry's crowning, the 9 and 11-year-olds disappeared after the event.
King Henry VII had history books written to say the boys' uncle, Richard III, killed his nephews so he could be king. Since Henry established the Tudor reign, Richard III was viewed as an evil murderer of children. His vileness was the subject of Shakespeare's play. In recent years, research and proof have redeemed Richard III as the protector of his nephews who were actually killed by Henry VII.
Henry VII proved that the POV of the storyteller can be persuasive. Readers tend to believe the narrator is sharing truth. The truth is the POV of the narrator may be unreliable.
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A Writer Can Rely on the Unreliable Narrator POV from @PeggySueWells on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)
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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