Viewpoint

 

“Obst Vw” by Sharon Solwitz is an interesting read where the viewpoint of the story is in this Third-Person Limited Viewpoint but is written in a way that recalls a very important memory between the main character, Demian, and his father because Demian must write a college essay. The story starts out with introducing Demian, a teenage boy of about 17 years of age (who is also the narrator of the story) and his girlfriend. They’re upstairs in Rachels room, fooling around while her parents are downstairs arguing. This leads to Demian being late coming home and him and his father having a blow up over it because Demian was grounded. Demian reflects on these sorts of moments between the two as to why he hates his father so much, even on his death bed! As if recalling the memory, he describes the day-to-day life he once had to justify the one he wants to have. This story is long and drawn out to describe small details of the setting and plot. For instance, at the end of the story Demian describes the blood on his girlfriend’s foot and how it's such a visceral sight he can taste it at the end. By writing in the third person, Solwitz can flesh out the character of Demian and his interactions between Rachel and his Father.

This is different than in the short story, “The Bank Robbery” by Steven Schutzman. First off, this story is written in “Flash Fiction” which in essence is story telling in 1000 words or less. Due to the limitation, the story must be concise, and the characters need to be developed in a way that doesn’t divulge too much information while still having complete characters. One of the ways that this story develops the characters is through the point of view that it is written in Third-Person Omniscient Viewpoint. In this short story by Schuzman, there are two characters: The Bank Robber, and The Bank Teller. Neither of them has names, though that’s hardly important. The Narrator starts in the third person, describing the robbery notes through the point of view of the teller, who is very poetic towards the robbery. The narrator is then able to switch to the bank robber, who in the same vein is also poetic about stealing the money. This form of storytelling can delve into the thoughts of both characters, even though the characters are not outwardly talking to each other. Their perspectives tell the story and even highlight a similarity – that both feel alive during the process of crime and trauma of crime in a soft, very vulnerable way. All-in-all, as a quick summary, in Solwitz’s story, though written in third person is limited to only what Demian perceives, while in Schutzmans’ story the narrator is omnipresent in both characters perspectives. Both stories can develop the characters in two different types of ways, either in a flash or long and drawn out.