“Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker are two unique stories with different point of narration. In “ Every Use.” The narrator of the story, Mrs. Johnson (Mama) gives information about her life and the difference between their daughters. The narrator used first person narration to provide a unique experience about this story, reading and understating the story from the prospective of the narrator (Mama). “Rip Van Winkle” The story was written in the third person narration (omniscient). The narrator is not a character in the story. However, he provides and comments information of all the characters thought and actions. This story has layered narrators, the omniscient voice of the narrator present us with the first person report of the fictional historian Diedrich Knickerbocker, who has explore and recorded the events of Rip Van Winkle’s stories. The difference between third person and first person narration makes “ Rip Van Winkle” a different kind of reading experience form “Everyday Use” as a result of how the narrator from each story tries to portrait their work to the reader. For example, in “Everyday Use” as a reader you can only experience the story through the main character eyes, from one point of view in this case from Mrs. Johnson (Mama). Indeed, you won’t know anything about the other people or events that this character has not personally experience. However, in the story “Rip Van Winkle” the reader has a wide image of every character in the story. In other words, as a reader you will see and experience the events and conflicts from each character’s point of view, thoughts and feelings of that moment. As an example, “Snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero’s hands and dumped them into Maggie’s lap. Maggie just sat there on my bed with her mouth open “ Take one or two of the other “ I said to Dee. But she turned without a word and went out to Hakim-a-barber. “ You just don’t understand,” she said, as Maggie and I came out to the car.” (7) Clearly you can see the first person narration limits the narrator to one perspective. However if these quotes were told in the third person narration the reader will portrait a complete image of all the thoughts and feelings of each character (Dee, Maggie, Mama). Writing from a third person point of view, the narrator provides the reader a better understanding of the story.
