Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

What is the voice called when the narrator is a secondary character?

+0
−0

Stories that are told by an "all seeing" narrator are told in the "third person."

Stories that are told by the main character, based on what s/he sees, are told in the "first person."

Suppose a story is told by a secondary character who is a friend of the main character. Examples are "The Great Gatsby," told by Nick Carraway, a friend of Jay Gatsby, or "My Friend Flicka," told by the owner of the horse. What is this persona/perspective called?

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/14717. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

2 answers

+1
−0

Typically, this is an Epistolary First Person (on wikipedia it's listed as Epistolary novel) if the narrator is presenting facts after they have happened in such a manner as to be read as a false document of events. The best known version of this is the character of Dr. Watson from the original Sherlock Holmes stories, who in the fictional universe, is the biographer of the fictional Holmes and the stories are his recollection of the case after the matter was solved. The general rule is that it must be presented as a primary source of events by a side character.

This is quite popular narrative voice in many classic horror and mystery types and can be found in Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It need not be an actual document, but the narrator must be telling to story to an audience after the fact (ala filing a police report or speaking to a news reporter. Frankenstein is an example of this type.). This is seen on visual medias such as the Merchant from Disney's Aladdin, possibley Cloppin from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Future Ted from "How I Met Your Mother". The "Captain's Log" monologs from Star Trek may make the franchise lightly this as well.

In Gatsby's case, he is talking to a psychiatrist (I think, I've seen the movie more recently than I have read the book). I can't speak for your other novel.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39132. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

+0
−0

You're mixing up the terms.

There is the protagonist, and there is the narrator. Narration has perspective.

The narrator is the voice in which the book is told. If the story is told using "he/she/they" and not "I," it's third-person. This narrative voice (perspective) can see into everyone's thoughts (omniscient) or only one person's thoughts (limited).

If the narrator is using "I" and the story is only about what the "I" narrator sees, knows, and experiences, that's first-person. The story is told from one person's perspective.

The protagonist is the main character of the book. A book may have multiple protagonists (see A Song of Ice and Fire), primary and secondary protagonists (the Harry Potter series), or one protagonist.

The protagonist does not have to be the narrator. The narrator does not have to be the protagonist. You can have a first-person narrative, like The Great Gatsby or Song of Achilles, where the person who is telling the story isn't the most important person in the story. It's still a first-person narrative.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »