How can you identify narrative viewpoint in a prose extract?

• A. By noting the pronouns used, and whether the narrator is reliable, biased or an observer.
• B. By analyzing the author’s birthplace.
• C. By examining the chapter titles.
• D. By looking at the number of adjectives used.

Answer: (A)

The main idea is to identify who is telling the story and what they know. You can spot this by looking at the pronouns the narrator uses—first-person I or we signals a narrator inside the story, while third-person he, she, or they suggests an outside observer. The level of access to thoughts and feelings also matters: a reliable or biased narrator may reveal personal opinions or distort events, while an observer tends to describe things more objectively or with limited inner thoughts. These clues together show the narrative viewpoint or point of view.

Other features like birthplace, chapter titles, or the sheer number of adjectives don’t reveal who is narrating or how much they know, so they don’t identify the viewpoint.