Describe Narrator/Speaker: Fiction/Drama - AP English Literature and Composition

1. What is "narrative distance" in describing a narrator or speaker?

   How emotionally or intellectually close the voice is to events. Measures involvement versus detachment.

2. Identify the point of view: "She wondered whether he knew the truth."

   Third-person limited narration. Shows one character's thoughts using third-person pronouns.

3. What is the term for a narrator who is a minor character observing the protagonist?

   Peripheral (observer) narrator. Witnesses main events but isn't central to the action.

4. What is the key distinction between "narrator" in fiction and "speaker" in lyric poetry?

   Narrator tells events; speaker voices the poem's persona. Fiction uses narrator for story; poetry uses speaker for voice.

5. Identify the point of view: "He opened the door. The room was empty. The clock ticked."

   Third-person objective narration. No thoughts revealed, only observable actions described.

6. Identify the narrative stance: "I watched him leave, but I never knew why he did it."

   First-person observer narrator. "I" observes but lacks access to "his" thoughts.

7. What is a first-person narrator who is also the story's central character called?

   First-person protagonist narrator. The main character tells their own story.

8. What is a dramatic monologue?

   A single speaker addresses a silent listener in a scene. One-sided conversation revealing character.

9. Which feature most directly signals possible unreliability: contradictions, bias, or omniscience?

   Contradictions. Direct evidence of factual inconsistency.

10. What is a first-person narrator who mainly observes another character's story called?

    First-person observer (witness) narrator. Narrates events but isn't the main focus.

11. Identify the point of view: "I hid the letter before anyone could see it."

    First-person narration. The "I" pronoun signals the narrator is a character.

12. Identify the narrative stance: "He entered. She stood. The clock ticked. No one spoke."

    Third-person objective (dramatic). Reports only actions without inner access.

13. Identify the narrator's reliability: "I never lie," says a narrator caught contradicting facts.

    Unreliable narrator. Self-contradiction reveals the narrator cannot be trusted.

14. What is a third-person narrator who knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters called?

    Third-person omniscient. Has godlike access to everyone's minds.

15. Identify the narrative stance: "He tightened his grip; he could not stop thinking about the letter."

    Third-person limited. Shows only "his" thoughts, not others'.

16. What is the term for a narrator who directly addresses the audience to comment on the story?

    Intrusive narrator. Breaks the fourth wall to offer commentary or opinions.

17. What is the term for a narrator speaking after events have occurred, with hindsight?

    Retrospective narrator. Looks back on past events with knowledge of outcomes.

18. Identify the point of view: "You step into the hallway and feel the air change."

    Second-person narration. Direct address using "you" places reader in the story.

19. What is the term for narration that reports only observable actions, not inner thoughts?

    Third-person objective narrator. Functions like a camera, recording only external actions.

20. What is the term for a narrator who is not a character but knows all characters' thoughts?

    Third-person omniscient narrator. Has godlike access to every character's inner thoughts.

21. Which term names the beliefs, values, and attitudes revealed by a narrator or speaker?

    Point of view (perspective). The lens through which story is filtered.

22. Identify the narrative stance: "She smiled, unaware that he had already decided to betray her."

    Third-person omniscient. Reveals both characters' inner thoughts.

23. What is the term for a speaker or narrator whose account cannot be trusted as accurate?

    Unreliable narrator. May lie, misunderstand, or have limited perspective.

24. What is the key distinction between the speaker in a poem and the author?

    The speaker is a persona, not necessarily the author. Authors create fictional voices to speak.

25. What is a narrator who reports only observable actions and speech, not inner thoughts?

    Third-person objective (dramatic) narrator. Acts like a camera, recording only externals.

26. In drama, what is the equivalent of a narrator, delivering the text directly to the audience?

    A character's dialogue or monologue (no narrator). Characters speak directly without narration.

27. Which narrator type uses "he/she/they" and is not a character in the story?

    Third-person narrator. Exists outside the story world entirely.

28. What is the term for a narrator who addresses "you," making the reader a character?

    Second-person narrator. Rare technique that directly involves readers.

29. Which narrator type uses "I" to tell the story from within the action as a character?

    First-person narrator. Participates in events while narrating them.

30. What is the term for a narrator who follows only one character's mind in third person?

    Third-person limited narrator. Restricted to one character's perspective and knowledge.

31. What is the term for a narrator who is also the main character of the story?

    Protagonist narrator. The story's hero tells their own story directly.

32. What is the term for the voice telling a story from outside the action using "he" or "she"?

    Third-person narrator. Remains outside the story world, observing characters externally.

33. Which narrator type can reveal the private thoughts of multiple characters in the same scene?

    Third-person omniscient narrator. Only this type knows what everyone is thinking simultaneously.

34. What is the term for a narrator who addresses the reader as "you" as the central character?

    Second-person narrator. Rare technique that makes the reader the protagonist.

35. Which narrator type is most restricted to what a single focal character knows and perceives?

    Third-person limited narrator. Bound to one character's knowledge and perceptions only.

36. What is the term for a narrator who is a character and uses "I" to tell the story?

    First-person narrator. Participates in the story as a character while narrating.

37. What is a third-person narrator limited to one character's inner life called?

    Third-person limited. Follows only one character's perspective.

38. What is the term for a speaker persona that is clearly not the author's literal identity?

    Dramatic speaker (persona). A created voice distinct from the poet's actual self.

39. In lyric poetry, what is the term for the voice that speaks in the poem?

    The speaker. The "I" of a poem, distinct from the poet.

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