The 80's: A Time of MTV, Voguing, & TMNT

"The Shawl"-Cynthia Ozick

"The Shawl" by Cynthia Ozick is told in third person omniscient point-of-view.  The most common pronoun that is seen is "it."  Also seen is the pronoun "she," but, it's not used as often.  The word "it" mainly refers to the shawl, which is very important to Magda for it keeps her alive.  When the word "she" is used, it's talking about one of the 3 girls: Magda, Rosa, or Stella.  Although all girls are in the story, the main character would be Magda.  It is her who is striving to stay alive, with Rosa and Stella taking care of her.  Stella isn't as good as a "mother" as Rosa is though.  Stella knows Magda is going to die, and wants it to happen soon.  Rosa, on the other hand, cares about Magda and is said when she sees Magda out of her shawl.

In omniscient, third person point-of-view, the narrator moves the audience between multiple characters personalities, allowing the audience a wide range of understanding of the personalities belonging to the characters in the story.  Cynthia used this point-of-view in her story "The Shawl."  I think she used this point-of-view so when reading the story, the audience can get to know each character.  Not only do we get to know what Stella is thinking, but we get to know how Rosa is feeling too.  Every now and then, we would get a line from Magda, but never anything needed to take note of.  it was mainly brief dialogue.

"Gesturing"-John Updike

The story "Gesturing" by John Updike is told in third person limited point-of-view.  In third person limited, the audience understands only one character's thoughts, feelings, and actions.  One of the pros of limited point-of-view is that the narrator is not the character.  With the narrator standing out, looking in, we have the benefit of exploring character's  personality without interference of unreliability, which is shown in first person point-of-view.  Also, as the audience, we have a more intimate knowledge of the character.

Granted, in "Gesturing," there is dialogue seen between characters other than the main character, Richard.  There are conversations between Richard and his wife, Richard and his mistress, and others.  Having this dialogue helps show scene and imagery.  Even though these dialogues are not just Richard, him being "limited," all the regular text is in his mind.  All the text besides dialogue is Richard's thoughts.  Not his wife's thoughts.  Not his mistress' thoughts.  Just his.  What he thinks about each of the women is shown in the context, but not what each of the women think of him.