Linguistic indicators of point of view
Our answer for task E
Lewis:
The farm worker Lewis is referred to by last name only. This suggests
that the narrator's relationship with him is fairly distant, and that
he may well be below the narrator in social status.
Mr Luscombe:
Mr Luscombe is referred to by title + last name, and so the narrator
is also distant from him. But he is above the narrator in social status.
He is the owner of the farm, in fact.
Bill:
Bill, Mr Luscombe's son, is referred to by first name only, and indeed
that first name is a shortened version of the more proper 'William'.
This suggests that the narrator knows Bill pretty well and thinks of
him as a rough equal in social terms.
Old Sam:
Old Sam is referred to by his first name, suggesting he is not distant
from the narrator in social terms, but the modifier 'old' suggests that
the narrator must be a lot younger than Old Sam.
The boy:
The figure introduced at the end of the passage is a boy in his mid-teens,
his clothes unsuited, a mere harvest helper. He is the only person not
introduced by name. Instead, he is introduced via indefinite reference
and a long noun phrase, explaining who he is and suggesting pretty clearly
that he is the least important of the figures in the description. So,
it would appear that the narrator has a rather distant relation with this
character.
But this is effectively a trick. The boy, we will soon discover, is the
narrator himself. Hence the third person pronoun is being used to refer
to someone who should be referred to with the first person pronoun. The
narrator is thus distancing his description, and the reader, from the
boy. Indeed, what is apparently a 3rd-person narration will soon change
to 1st-person, marking a big viewpoint switch.
Note, also, that there is some indication for the careful reader that
some sort of trick is being played here. After all, (i) the unknown boy
is foregrounded, as he is the only one who is unknown, and (ii) he also
occupies a climactic position at the end of the paragraph. At the very
least, it would appear that this boy is going to become a major character
in the story, even if he isn't yet important socially.
What social position must the reader take on while this text is being
read? (part ii)
Readers usually feel that, unless there is an obvious reason to do otherwise,
it is their task to share the viewpoint of the narrator. If we ignore
the reference to the unknown boy, in social terms the narrator appears
to be a bit younger than, and of a similar social status to, Bill, Mr
Luscombe's son. Hence we will tend to take on that viewpoint as we read.
This helps to increase the shock when, a few pages later, it is revealed
to us that the unknown boy is actually the narrator himself as a young
boy.
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