Voice and Types of Voices in Literature

Voice

Voice – The voice expresses the author or narrator’s emotions, attitude/tone, and point of view through word choices ( diction), sentence structure ( syntax), and imagery in literature forms. Examples – Formal, informal, witty, serious, light-hearted, comical, depressed, positive, negative, persuasive, objective, subjective, etc.

Point Of View -The perspective from which a story is told is called its point of view. It refers to the ‘eyes’ of the narrative voice that determine the story’s position. Simply put point of view refers to the narrator’s perspective about the story’s events.

Types of Point of View

• First-person point of view-With a first-person view, readers understand the thoughts and feelings of the main character. The main character tells the story, and readers see the character’s life. First-person point of view is identified by singular or plural first person pronouns-I, me, mine, we, ourselves, etc.
• Second person point of view-Narrator speaks to the reader directly. The reader is brought into the story’s action and addressed using the pronouns You, yours, your, yourself/yourselves.
• Third person point of view There is a narrative presence telling the story and referring to the characters in the third person as ‘he’ or ‘she’. Singular pronouns– She, he, him, her, his, hers, herself, himself, it, its, itself. Plural pronouns- They, them, their, theirs, themselves. It can be sub-divided into

Third-person limited point of view -The narrator is closely assigned to one character. The narrator has access to the thoughts and experiences of just one character.

Third person omniscient point of view – The narrator has access to all experiences, feelings, and thoughts of all the characters in the story. It is not limited to one character.

Readers need to look at the pronouns used in narration and not in dialogues to identify the type of point of view in written work.

Tone

It is the author’s attitude towards the subject of a piece of writing. Satirical, humorous, appreciative, etc., are examples of tone. Through the author’s choice of words and details description, the readers can determine the style.

Types of Voices in Literature

• Author’s voice – It reflects the attitude of the author. The writing style, diction, and syntax convey the author’s message and thoughts to the readers. In non-fiction work like articles, an author’s voice is outstanding.
• Narrator’s voice – It expresses the attitude of the person narrating the story directly to the readers. The role of the narrator in the story is highly significant, and the narrative style helps to understand the narrator’s voice.

Narrative style – First person point of view (the narrator is the main character in the story. Use of I, me ) Third person point of view- Limited or Omniscient (the narrator is not a character in the story /an outsider who conveys the feelings and thoughts of the characters in the story. Can give facts. Use of he/she/they/them )

• Character’s voice – An author may tell a report from the perspective of multiple characters. Therefore, a story can have multiple voices to show different personality traits and attitudes.