Focus on ... narrative voice The narrative voice is the voice or perspective a story is told through.
In Unit 1 you learned about personal writing. Personal writing is always written in the fi rst person (I), meaning that you are talking about yourself (I saw, I experienced). This is called a fi rst-person narrative. For example:
‘August 25, 1991 Dear Friend,
I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand.’ (Stephen Chbosky, Perks of Being a Wallfl ower)
This is written in the form of a letter, and the fi rst word is ‘I’. We call this a fi rst-person narrative, meaning the narrator is a character within the story.
In third-person narratives the story is told by an unknown narrator who is not involved in the story. For example:
‘Vincent Sheils had two main claims to fame. He could put his left leg behind his head and stick the big toe into his right ear. And he’d once met Muhammad Ali.’ (Roddy Doyle, ‘Vincent’)
This extract is written about a person named Vincent Sheils. Vincent himself is not telling the story.
Explore
Work in pairs to list the advantages and disadvantages in using a fi rst-person narrative voice and a third-person narrative voice.
