What the exam asks
In Section I (Multiple Choice), you will encounter stems that ask you to:
- Identify the narrator or speaker and describe their relationship with the reader or other characters.
- Determine how a first-person or third-person point of view controls what information is revealed or withheld.
- Infer a narrator’s or speaker’s attitude, bias, or perspective from their word choice and selective detail.
In Section II (Free Response), especially Question 1 (Poetry Analysis) and Question 2 (Prose Fiction Analysis), top-scoring essays (earning 3–4 points in Row B) never merely label a text as “first-person” or “third-person omniscient.” Instead, they explain the function of that choice: how the narrator’s level of involvement or access to characters’ minds shapes the meaning of the passage.
Core ideas
Narrator, speaker, and author
A narrator relates the events of a prose narrative; a speaker is the voice of a poem. Neither is the author. Even when a poem or story uses “I,” treat the voice as a constructed persona created by the writer.
Narrators and speakers establish a specific relationship with the reader through their tone and directness. Some confide in the reader like an intimate friend, others address a specific listener within the text, and others report events from a cool, detached distance.
Point of view vs. perspective
Students frequently confuse these two terms, a distinction the exam directly tests:
- Point of view (POV) is the grammatical and structural position from which a story is told (first-person or third-person).
- Perspective is how a narrator, speaker, or character sees and interprets their circumstances—shaped by their background, biases, emotions, and experiences.