Third Person Narrator

Content

• Types of third person narrator
• Examples of third person narrator

The storyteller It is the character, voice or entity that relates the events that the characters of a story go through. The narrator may or may not be a character in the story and it is through his story and the angle from which he looks at the events that the reader interprets and perceives the events that make up the story.

Depending on the voice you use and the degree of involvement with the story, there are three types of narrators: the first person narrator; the second person narrator and the third person narrator.

The third-person narrator is one who recounts the events from the outside, and may or may not be part of the story. For example: He came home, took off his shoes, and opened a bottle of wine. Behind the door, for the first time, he had managed to leave behind the other side of the door those problems that had plagued him for two weeks. 

• See also: Narrator in first, second and third person

Types of third person narrator

• Omniscient. It is an "entity" or "god" external to the story, who knows the facts and actions that happen, as well as the feelings and thoughts of the characters. This narrator can move in time and space and can influence the story. He never makes a value judgment on the characters or events he narrates.
• Witness. It is included in the story and tells in the third person what one of the characters sees and perceives, but without having an active participation in the events. It may be more or less close to the action, of which it participates as a witness. There are different types of witness narrators:

• • Informant witness. Narrate the story transcribing the events, as if it were a chronicle or document.
  • Impersonal witness. He only narrates, generally in the present tense, what he witnessed.
  • Eyewitness. It tells the events that you witnessed, with greater or lesser proximity, in the past. This narrator makes little allusion to himself.

Examples of third person narrator

1. Omniscient narrator

She woke up suddenly, opened her eyes, and found herself sitting on her bed. It was hard for him to breathe. Once again, that accident crept into his dreams. He got up, poured himself water into the first glass he found on the counter, and sat down in a chair. That memory haunted her, that death that had left a void in her that she knew she could never fill. But what exasperated her most was the idea of ​​not being able to get over it. That his life was suspended, tied to that moment. That each day, as the last months of his life had been, are nothing more than a race whose goal was getting further and further away.

• See also: Omniscient Narrator

1. Reporter witness narrator

For reasons that I will not reveal here, I had the opportunity - the bad experience - to set foot in one of those concentration camps that lie in our city, but that nobody talks about, as if they did not exist.One of his guards, with shaking hands, placed a piece of paper in the palm of my hand giving chilling details of what it is like to live there. Next, I will write verbatim just a fragment of what that man told me. Some passages are illegible, so I chose the following: “The light is nothing more than a memory, a longing. Prisoners have been spending days, months, maybe years - who knows - in damp, dark cells where they don't even enter lying down. Once a day, a guard, whose mouth can never come a word, leaves them a can, with a minimal portion of something that pretends to be a stew, with a bitter taste and doubtful origin. The bathroom is not an option and the dose of water they receive is barely enough not to die of thirst ”.

1. Impersonal witness narrator

Retirement does not suit Don Julio at all. All her life she had fantasized about that moment and now every minute is an ordeal. His library became his world. His life is reduced to those four walls full of bookshelves where, for years, he was accumulating books with the illusion of reading them when he finally began what he thought would be the best stage of his life. But there they are, almost intact. Every time he takes one, which he chooses with his index finger from among all the spines, and hoping that this is the one, in just a few minutes he finds any excuse to put it aside and start doing something else.

The grandfather clock next to the leather chair in which he tries to read became his worst enemy; It reminds you that the hours do not pass, that the days do not end and that each minute is eternal.

1. Eyewitness narrator

That the bell rang surprised her, she looked at her watch and grimaced. "Could it be that she forgot the keys," she wondered aloud, alluding to her husband, whom she hadn't seen since breakfast, when each one went, separately, to their respective work.

She put down her teacup, stood up, and walked to the door wiping her hands on the red and white checkered cloth. He peeked through the peephole and took several seconds to open the door.

On the other side, a man dressed as a policeman asked her a question, to which she answered with a "yes", while her face transformed. Seconds later, as if his legs weren't responding, he fell to the ground and covered his face with the checkered cloth. The next thing that was heard was a heartbreaking cry.

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