Odyssey 2 9.1 Short Story: Seventh Grade by Gary Soto
Learning Intentions In this section you will … ✓ Develop your understanding of narrative voice.
Before Reading WRITING Narrative voice
Narrative voice is the point of view that a story is told from. On page 163 you explored the three main narrative voices: first-person, second-person and third-person omniscient.
Authors choose a narrative voice carefully, as it affects: (a) how the story is told, and (b) how the reader responds to the story.
Narrators can be characters in the story. If the narrator is a character in a story, remember that they are only able to tell their version of the story – they must leave some details out as they cannot know everything that happened about an event. The narrative voice doesn’t have to be a character in the story. It can simply be a voice that tells the story from a neutral point of view. Such a narrative voice is likely to give a more complete version of a story.
Reading
Seventh Grade by Gary Soto is the story of Victor, a young boy who has a crush on Teresa, a girl from his school. The seventh grade is the eighth school year, students are around 12-13 years old in this stage. As you are reading: 1. Decide on the type of narrative voice being used by the author. Who is telling the story?
2. Make notes as you read so you can explain your answer when the story is finished.
