The concept of the point of view in the narrative is useful in evaluating and critiquing stories. Each author selects it depending on different factors. This essay seeks to use the point of view to evaluate the story Lusus Naturae by Margaret Atwood, a tale of an outcast with whom nobody wants to be associated. The evaluation tries to determine how it impacts and shapes the story. The first-person point of view has been used to filter the information, provide a viewing position of the story, shape the perspectives of the narrator, and to help identify with the protagonist.
The point of view in narratives plays a vital role in shaping the plot. According to Al-Alami (2019), it filters everything in a story and determines what information the narrator shares with the audience. The narrator in the story Lusus Naturae is keen to explain the situation both as she saw it, and how the family and the village viewed it. The information revealed is carefully selected to include only the details relating to the family relationships and how the narrator’s illness came to change them (Atwood, 2014). The first-person point of view, according to Al-Alami (2019), can refer to either the observer or the protagonist. In Atwood’s narrative, the first-person narration relates to the protagonist, in this case, the narrator. The viewing position of the story, therefore, is internal where the story can be viewed from the inside.
Evidently, the protagonist does not necessarily conflict with the family members, villagers, or even the other characters described in the story such as the priest and the doctor. On the contrary, the narrator tries to show that she understands the feelings and attitudes of the people described from a third-person point of view. She is also trying to understand her own situation as much as everyone else (Atwood, 2014). Whatever is done to her does not seem to matter much as the focus of the narrative is the strange illness causing her to be cast out of the family and even the general social life. The filtering of the information is evident when the narrator tries to justify the actions of other people as opposed to fighting to be acknowledged and accepted. The reader sees the story the same way the narrator does.
The first person point of view also helps shape the reader’s perspective and to identify with the protagonist. According to Salem et al. (2017), one of the main purposes of reading fictional narratives is to overcome the limits of epistemic horizons in a process referred to as perspective-taking. Such a process can be described as the reader’s impression to “be in the story.” In Lusus Naturae, it becomes easy for a reader to see the story as the narrator sees it and to experience the events the same way as the narrator. The relator does not judge the people around her for her actions, even her mother who is finally relieved that she will no longer have to take care of her. The reader will understand why the events take place and see the same sense as the narrator. The plot comprises a girl learning to become her own and the events are seen from her point of view. As such, the plot in the narrative is shaped by the events and the thoughts of the young girl as related from the first-person point of view.
Additionally, the first-person narration also allows the audience to identify with the protagonist. The narrator is the protagonist in Atwood’s story who tells the tale as she knows, understands, and feels it. Getting into the story means getting “in the shoes” of the narrator and feeling what she feels and reasoning the way she reasons. One key point to note, as Al-Alami (2019) highlights, is the distinction between the point of view and perspective. While the former is concerned with the type of narrator, the latter focuses on how the characters see and interpret what happens in the story. The idea here is that the first-person point of view helps the reader identify the narrator’s perspective of the story and associate with it. The plot is, therefore, developed by following the narrator’s train of thoughts and examination of the events that shape the narrative. The audience is taken through the events from the start to the end where they feel and experience everything that the protagonist does.
In conclusion, the story Lucus Naturae uses the first-person point of view. It shapes the plot by determining the protagonist and how he perceives the events in the story. The first-person narration adopted impacts the story by filtering the information revealed, providing a position to view the story, and shaping the perspectives, and helping the reader associate with the protagonist. The plot has been shaped by following the narrator’s train of thought where the reader is taken through the events.
References
Al-Alami, S. (2019). Point of view in narrative. Theory and Practice in Language Studies,, 9(8), 911-916.
Atwood, M. (2014). Lusus naturae: A short story by Margaret Atwood. In M. Atwood, Stone Mattress. Bloomsbury.
Salem, S., Weskott, T., & Holler, A. (2017). Does narrative perspective influence readers’ perspective-taking? An empirical study on free indirect discourse, psycho-narration and first-person narration. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 2(1), 1-18.