Point of view is an essential element to consider when reading literature of any kind. How an author chooses to tell a story, directly affects how and what the reader sees and feels. Most authors write their stories with a certain point of view in order to keep the reader interested and to help them better understand the characters and their situations. In Truman Capote's, 'My Side of the Matter', and John Cheever's, 'Five-Forty-Eight', these reasons are the basis for their different points of view.
Capote's, 'My Side of the Matter, was written in subjective narrative. This means that the story is being told to a particular listener or group of listeners at the conclusion of an event. Most of the time the narrator isn't looking at the situation objectively and as Moffett says, 'seem unreliable, try to get us on their side, or assume values or views we don't share' (p.179).
Truman Capote , 1948
English: Truman Capote
Truman Capote, 1959.Right away we become aware of this in the opening paragraph. There seems to be a sense of urgency for the narrator to tell the reader 'the truth':
I know what is being said about me and you can take my side or theirs,
that's your own business. It's my word against Eunice's and Olivia-Ann's,
and it should be plain enough to anyone with two good eye which one of
us has their wits about them. I just want the citizens of the USA to
know the facts that's all (p.189).
Already the reader is aware that this is a one sided story and that the narrator has certain biases' towards certain characters. Which keeps the reader interested, wanting to read
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more to find out what happened, and to see if there is a justification for this narrator's accusations.
The next thing...