From: Isaacs <isaacs>
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 18:50:05 -0500

Point of view may be THE major literary analysis tool my sixth graders take away from my class which is, not coincidentally, also a geography class, where the concept is also important. We begin, not with multiple points of view, but with a book told from a blinkered one, Jacob Have I Love, a story shaped by the jealousy of the narrator through whose eyes we hear everything. We go on to include at least one multiple narrative -- last year's was Seedfolks where you can imagine even MORE pieces of the puzzle than you can with Bat 6. At least at the end of Wolff's book you have a feeling you have heard most of the story. For Megaboy or Seedfolks, there is the dangling possibility of even more. The question for the sixth grade readers, no matter which books we choose to use for class reading and discussion, is that posed by Avi in Nothing But the Truth. What IS the truth? Is it knowable? This is a pretty big idea for 11 year olds. It is for many adults, too, especially those of us raised with the idea of "authoritative" versions and taught by teachers who told us what our reading meant. It seems to me (and the raising of the topic supports) that there are more and more books for young people offering multiple ways of seeing the elephant of a particular story. Does this mean that as a culture we're becoming more comfortable with this idea? And what, then, is the story?

aisaacs at towson.edu
Received on Fri 06 Nov 1998 05:50:05 PM CST