A Perspective on Perspective

Happy New Year.

I hope you all had a peaceful Christmas and a relaxing New Year and are now ready to face whatever 2014 has in store for you.

Since January is a month of new beginnings, I thought it might be a good idea to address a topic that transcends the realms of fiction and consider something that is fundamentally important for everyday life as well.

Perspective and Point of View

I'm sure that plenty of you have looked at the title and wondered what the heck I'm talking about.

Perspective is defined as, 'away of regarding situations, facts, etc, and judging their relative importance' while point of view is considered to be 'a mental viewpoint or attitude'. Basically, how does someone see a certain situation?

So let's use a brief example. You've been talking to a friend or a colleague and have made a comment that you consider to be a joke. Let's say it's a comment on how something is 'so gay' or how someone has 'done something blonde' (again, apologies for these examples). It's something that maybe doesn't mean anything to you but your colleague isn't reacting the way you thought. In fact, they've become angry with you and an argument has begun.

Many viewpoints but a rather limited understanding

It would be all too easy to blame your colleague for taking your comment the wrong way and to maintain your innocence. After all, you didn't mean anything by it and did not intend to start an argument. But that doesn't mean that you are in the clear.

What has happened is a clashing of perspectives. Someone has been hurt or angered by something that has been said because they see the comment in a different way from what was intended. It happens every day and can be the root of many arguments because everyone has a perspective which is as unique as they are. They can be shaped by past experiences, memories or even internal conflict, and they can sometimes clash.

For those of you who have read my blogs before, you will know that I addressed something similar when discussing character creation so some of this will no doubt sound familiar to you. But I'm certain that there's a few of you out there wondering why I appear to be rehashing something that I've already addressed or are wondering why I'm delving into something based more on psychology than character analysis (unless, of course, you have already become bored and have decided to watch videos on YouTube rather than continue this post). This isn't the first time I have done so, but my focus and examples will primarily come from books and films as usual, rather than academic knowledge.

What do you think?

Perspective or point of view can come in two guises; a perspective based on opinion and a perspective based on knowledge.

A perspective based on opinion is easy. After all, you're in the process of reading one. This entire blog is based on my opinions and I am fully aware that not everyone will agree with what I have to say. It is a biased perspective and can depend on my own thoughts or indeed the thoughts of others that I have absorbed along the way. Everyone has a unique perspective, but they are often created in very similar ways. We absorb opinions and constantly develop our own. We can change our minds based on new information or we can contradict what someone else says if we don't agree.

Perspectives have a tendency to colour everything we do and this is most obvious when reading something with a first-person narrative. The Hunger Games trilogy is a prime example of such a narrative. Katniss Everdeen guides us through her story every step of the way. We know that President Snow is someone to fear because she is afraid of him and makes an effort to project her feelings about him onto us. We are suspicious of Peeta and Finnick at first because she doesn't quite trust them and when she learns to let them in, we start to believe what they say.

But first-person narratives can also reveal some fundamental flaws with certain characters, including the narrator themselves. Critics and academics have spent years analysing the voice of Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby and have questioned his story because of this biased opinion. This is referred to as the 'Unreliable Narrator', and suspicions can grow regarding the reliability of certain statements or characters. After all, just because Nick sees Gatsby as an innocent, fun individual doesn't mean that he was, or that there wasn't a darker presence hidden behind a friendly façade.

Who is Gatsby?

This is one of the main reasons why adaptations of first-person narratives can be so difficult. The introspections and opinions of the character we are following can often be lost or can clutter the story that is being told. It's a different medium and adaptations can struggle to bring certain perspectives to life in the same way as they initially appeared.

But that is not to say it's impossible. The Hunger Games films added some extra scenes of President Snow so that we, as an audience, could develop the same uneasiness that Katniss feels towards him without her actively telling us 'You should be scared of him'. We can see that she is afraid, but that isn't enough. We have to experience it ourselves or a key element of the narrative is lost.

The first-person narrative isn't the only way that opinion based perspective can be portrayed. Many narratives use a close third-person perspective that focuses primarily on one or more characters. Their thoughts and opinions still come across and can often provide some very contradictory opinions of each other.

Let's use the Discworld series as another example. Not every story in this series is told using the same characters but they do enjoy crossing over into other narratives. One prime example comes from Commander Samuel Vimes, a member of the Watch of Ankh-Morpork (basically he's a policeman). During the course of these books we learn about his intelligence, his love of the job, his love of his family and the difficulties of ensuring that the law is upheld across the city regardless of position or class. But in a city like Ankh-Morpork, there are many other characters present and several books choose to centre on them instead. The Truth revolves around William De Worde's attempts to create a newspaper and the Watch keeps popping up. Suddenly, Vimes is not the brilliant character or the hero we've come to know and love. He is a problem, someone who seems to be making William's life difficult and preventing him from achieving his goals by not sharing information or generally preventing William from getting what he needs to stay in business. On the flipside, when William, or his staff, appears in a book centred on the Watch, they are seen as annoyances that enjoy getting in the way.

The same people. Different perspectives.

However, as I mentioned earlier, there is another kind of perspective; the kind that relies on knowledge and understanding.

What do you know?

Let's use your work colleague here again and claim that they are an acquaintance of yours. You haven't known them very long before you made the comment that angered them. Now if they were someone you knew well, you would probably have known to not say this because it's a sensitive topic or it's just something they don't like to hear. It's the difference between an innocent mistake and a deliberate attempt to antagonise. People react differently based on what they know about a situation or issue. It's why we are more likely to trust a professional over someone who is just learning themselves or why we might treat someone slightly differently if we discovered they were seriously ill.

This is something that is mainly seen in minor characters such as the pencil-pushing, glory-seeking superior or the love-struck colleague who cause problems for the protagonist by doing things that make life difficult. But we only catch glimpses of these people and it's rarely when they are in their element or doing their jobs, moments when they would have an opportunity to show their competence or skill. We see them as comic relief or obstacles because they are reacting to the protagonist. Our knowledge of them reflects how we see them.

A prime example comes from Lin Beifong from Legend of Korra, an officer of the law and metal-bender. During the course of the second season, Lin suddenly seemed less competent at her job for no apparent reason. She dismissed the claims of Mako, who was investigating a crime, and preferred to listen to two lazy colleagues who kept looking for an easy solution. It is easy to see why Mako was getting frustrated and ended up making a few reckless choices.

But let's look at the situation based on what Lin knew at the time. Mako was a rookie in the ranks, didn't appear to have solid evidence backing up his claims and kept bringing his suspicions to Lin at inappropriate moments. His own past wasn't exactly squeaky clean and there was plenty of room to doubt him. In contrast were the two detectives, people who had not only been on the force for a while, but had clearly been promoted. There is reference made to detective 'openings', much like any other job vacancy, so these two had clearly applied and been considered the best candidates for these positions.

Calculating or ignorant? Bad writing or a believable reaction?

Minor characters often get a tough break in the narrative because we simply aren't given enough time with them to form any sort of opinion. The more we learn, the more our perspectives on them can change and this can often be reflected in the understanding of the main character.

Let's look at Harry Potter for a moment, or rather the character of Dumbledore. One scene that has stayed with fans since the beginning was with the Mirror of Erised. Because our perspective is with Harry, we see what he sees. We know what he desires. But when Harry shares the Mirror with Ron and Dumbledore, both Harry and the reader experience a problem; we can't see what Ron and Dumbledore see reflected in the Mirror. We trust what they tell us because Harry trusts them, even if we feel that what Dumbledore sees is a bit odd. It is only much later, when we learn more about Dumbledore's life and past regrets, that we start to view that scene with new eyes. Harry's knowledge and our understanding is no longer what it used to be. We don't believe what he told us in the first book because our trust in him has changed.

Reflections

Perspective shapes everything, no matter what form it comes in. It is not just about how someone might approach a situation. It's about how someone might think, or how they view people and situations.

So the work colleague you angered? Maybe they found your comments hurtful, even if you didn't mean them to be, or it was the final straw of a very bad day. Not everyone is going to see things the way you do or know everything that you know. In the words of Atticus Finch, 'You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.'

It's the beginning of a new year. Let's make an effort to understand a different point of view.