English 111
Fall, 2001
Don Maxwell

The Other's Point of View


In your "Trouble" and "Newspaper" writings, you examined a troubling relationship from two different directions. Another way to think about this is that you've been exploring what writers call "point of view," and I expect that consciously or unconsciously you've learned quite a lot about the relationship between the point of view of a piece of writing and the point it makes or the effect it produces in the reader. I'll discuss this again in a future assignment, especially in how it's related to the types of writing known as "the argument" and the academic essay.

        But for now I'd like to invite you to explore the point of view of the person who troubles you. How might that person have responded to the "Trouble" assignment?

        For next time, tell the story again (or a closely related one), but this time, write it as if you were the person who troubles you.

        The first person--the "I"--in what you write this time will be that other person. And you will be "she" or "he."

        This may seem peculiar to you at first. But I assure you that it'll not only help you with your writing, it should help you with certain other things, as well.  Try to make the other person sound true to life--as he or she really IS.
 

P.S. In your postscript to me this time, you might consider how you felt about impersonating another person. Was speaking for someone else easier or harder than speaking for yourself?

P.P.S. When you get a chance, how about writing me another note to tell me how this course seems to you by now. I'm thinking mainly about the various assignments, but I'll be interested in whatever you feel like saying.

 


NOTES

1. One example of experiments in point of view is a set of four novels by Lawrence Durrell referred to as The Alexandria Quartet.  Each novel is told from the point of view of a different character--but they all know and interact with each other in the stories.  GO BACK
 

2. On-campus classes:  Please get this essay into a computer BEFORE our October 22nd/24th class begins.  At the very beginning of that class there will be a few minutes to post your essay to a Blackboard discussion forum.  But there will not be time for copy typing.  You MUST have it written and either posted to Blackboard, or saved on a 3.5 inch floppy disk (IBM format) BEFORE class begins.