Narrator - Types of Narrators - Multiple Narrators

Multiple Narrators

A writer may choose to let several narrators tell the story from different points of view. Then it is up to the reader to decide which narrator seems most reliable for each part of the story. It may refer to the style of the writer in which he/she expresses the paragraph written. See for instance the works of Louise Erdrich. William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is a prime example of the use of multiple narrators. Faulkner employs stream of consciousness by narrating the story from the first person view of multiple characters. Each chapter is devoted to the voice of a single character after whom it is titled. Some writers employ an alternate form of this style, in which multiple characters narrate the story at once, or at least a single character narrates the actions of a group of characters while never referring to a "me", and only to a "we" of the group. The technique of narrating from the point of view of a group as opposed to an individual can create a dissociative effect of observation, as if a Greek chorus, or personalize the story further by providing the reader with the knowledge and experience of a party involved in the story, without the unrelatable specifics of an individual personality or character. Examples of first-person plural narration include Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted and Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides.

In literary work, the narrator is the person who tells the story. Point of view is the narrator's relationship to the story. In a story using first-person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story. The reader sees everything through that character's eyes. In a work with third-person limited point of view, the narrator is outside the story and reveals the thoughts and feelings of only one character.

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