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Point of View and Empathy

By Tim Pappageorge
Humanizing Reading through the study of Point of View
POV in literature.  From Faulkner's As I Lay Dying to contemporary young adult fiction such as13 Reasons Why, understanding varying points of view and vectors of experience can be enlightening for all readers.  For teens, whose world views are in flux and formation, it is a critical democratic insight to understand and value perspectives that vary from ours.  Literature can provide a key means of growth in this aspect of truth because authors choose to craft literature from a particular--or even multiple!--points of view, and this gives the reader much to consider.   Thus, the maxim: the teller of of the story IS the story. 
Beauty.  I think this line of study is really a beautiful thing.  It guards against solipsism and a narcissistic view of the world, and it creates empathy for others.  It causes one to refine his or her view by considering how it might be different from an other's view.  Finally, as it pertains to the CCSS, I find it truly amazing that authors so carefully structure texts with point of view in mind, that this artistic choice is so defining for literature (RL.9-10.5).  Witness, for example, how different the recent novel, The Book Thief would be if it were told from a character's perspective instead of Death itself! 
Here is a set of lessons that I wrote on this topic.

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