Point of View

Point of view.
Brian Aldiss   uses first person point of view in the story “Making My Father Read Revered Writings”. The boy is one of the characters and tells the story in his own words and he knows what the narrator knows and observes. One of the advantages of this kind of narration is that it increases the immediacy and freshness of impression.
The “point of view” character is the boy who was very unhappy in his family: “I felt myself to be the very opposite (to his sisters and parents)”. His parents gave him the same name as his father; “I was diminished by it; did they think I had no separate existence?” His parents paid little attention to him. They were also strict to his son. For instance, there was no TV-set in their home, and William asked why, the answer was: “Because I say so”. Moreover his father always selected what he should wear. Nevertheless “all through childhood years”, the boy yearned to be loved by his indifferent father. The boy was very keen on reading. And his favorite book was “The Prince of Such Things”: “the brilliance of “The Prince of Such Things” flooded into my mind. The words, the turns of phrase, the sentences, the paragraphs and their cumulation, unfolded an eloquently imaginative story. It was a study of ordinary life and yet also a fairy story“. So, it is no wonder, why the boy wanted his father to read this book, and to shear his impressions with him. But, unfortunately, the father didn’t show any emotions. “He closed the book. He gave no glance. He said not a word”.
To sum up, I would like to say, that the first-point of view, in which the story is told, is very important. As through the words of the boy we see all his experiences and feelings. What is more the use of a participant narrator “shows” us the emotional state of the main character, his perception of the world. Due to it events are more vivid and easier to understand.