Point Of View In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The point of view of a novel, book, or story is important because it shows what is going on the plot of the story. Depending on what kind of ploy the story is and how the author would wish to tell the plot is how we decide what point of view it is going to be. There are four possible point of view that the author can decide to use, omniscient, third person limited, first person, and objective. Omniscient point of view is told by a narrator whose knowledge is unlimited. This kind of point of view is really revealing because this allows the reader to go into the mindset and motives of different characters. The narrator of this point of view can tell us as much as they want or as little as they please. The third person limited point of view

The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is told in an objective point of view while the story of “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, is told third person point of view limited, but it is also told through the stream of consciousness because you don’t know what are memories and what are present

The story is limited because it is told from the narrator's point of view, so we don’t actually know what Miss Brill is feeling, we can just make inferences from the information that the narrator is giving us. Miss Brill has memories of when she was younger and known, that you don’t really know which ones are from the present and which ones are from the past. It talks about Miss Brill and how she goes out; “There were a number of people out this afternoon, far more than last Sunday” (Mansfield) in a while. She talks and it looks as if the day is normal and that it is her normal routine, that she goes there for a long time. She is living in the life of the old time, of when she was an actress. She thinks that everyone is happy that she's there and they are appreciative. She is living in the past of when she was popular, of when she was recognized and wanted; “‘An actress!"’The old head lifted; two points of light quivered in the old eyes. ‘An actress - are ye?’ And Miss Brill smoothed the newspaper as though it were the manuscript of her part and said gently; ‘Yes, I have been an actress for a long time’” (Mansfield). It wasn’t until the end where she was able to seperate the past from the present, when she realized that she wasn’t wanted and that nobody really liked her; “‘But why? Because of that stupid old thing at the end there?’ asked the boy. ‘Why does she come here at