Omniscient-v-Limited The differences?

Read these two passages. Can you tell which narrative is omniscient –v- limited. What words/phrases create the omniscient voice?


     She noticed them immediately. Old habits died hard, and her eyes tracked the movement on the road even before her mind registered approaching danger five men striding with the swagger of warriors. The only outward sign of her alarm was the tightening of her grip on the knife as she stripped a dead twig from the branch of the olive tree. There was no point in running. The men had seen her, and if she was their target they would catch her sooner or later. Sooner, she thought ruefully, remembering that her legs were not so limber as they once had been. Drawing a deep breath, she spoke as calmly as she could.    
     "Lyceus, I want you to take those olives to your mother, now." The young boy at her side looked down at the basket he carried and hefted its weight. He could tell it was more than half empty. "But Aunt Gabrielle, we've barely begun."
      "It's enough," she said, more curtly than she had intended. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the warriors step off the road and enter the far edge of the orchard. Softening her tone of voice, she spoke again, "I'm too tired to do any more work today. Run along now, before I change my mind."
     With a grin of delight, Lyceus turned to dash away, then froze.    
     "Auntie...those men..." He was young, but no fool, and his instincts were sharp, if less experienced than hers.
     "Lyceus," she commanded softly. "Do as I say. Don't look back at them. Run."

As you can see, the reader is privy to the opnions/feelings of both Gabrielle and her nephew. As the cast of characters grows, the omniscient viewpoint allows the reader some glimpses into their thoughts as well. Anything that happens in this world can be described because the narrator is all-knowing, all-seeing. The disadvantage to this point of view is that the reader may feel emotionally removed from the storyline — the narrator reveals a little about every character, so it becomes harder to strongly identify with any one person. In fact, if the writer isn't careful, the shifts in viewpoint from one character to another can leave the reader dizzy.

     Xena drove the head of the shovel deep into the loose dirt, then heaved the load up and over, dropping it into the pit by her feet. She steeled herself for the soft thudding sounds the dirt and clumps of grass made when they fell on the heaps below. Another stab with the shovel and she could feel sweat break out on her brow. That was a bad sign. The morning air was cool and she hadn't been digging that long.
     "I wish you'd let me help," came a voice from over her shoulder.
     "Gabrielle, I told you to stay back." She couldn't spare enough breath to adequately convey her anger. Another bad sign. She wiped her brow with the back of her hand, then went back to her task. The next load of dirt seemed a lot heavier than the others.
      Time passed, marked only by the steady rise and fall of her shovel.
     "Xena..." Gabrielle's voice sounded closer than it had before. "It's got to be safe for me by now. These are the last of the dead and they're nearly buried."
    "Stay away!" snapped the warrior, careful to keep her back turned to her friend. A sudden wave of heat swept through Xena's limbs. Its passage robbed her of the strength to hold the shovel. She could feel her body sway, as if buffeted by the fire that raged inside her.
     "Xena!"
     "Stay...back," she cried out, but her voice was parched to a dry whisper.

The reader is aware of everything Xena is thinking and feeling, but Gabrielle's actions remain a mystery because Xena is not even looking at her. Using this perspective allows a writer to keep their own prose style, and to interpret and comment on the character's behavior, while still offering depth of emotion. The same restricted perspective should be used consistently throughout a scene, but new scenes or chapters can start with a different character's restricted viewpoint.

Coming Next Week

• Ch.8 Social Studies book Test - Causes of the Revolution (PS Two BBIC)
• Historical Fiction Narrative Writing - 3rd person omniscient e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-person_omniscient_narrative 
• Patrick Henry Spech (vocabulary and recitation)
• Chapter 9 Social Studies Readings 'At War'
• Tenses

MI Students' Work - Examples coming soon...

MI - Background Info.

Watch and learn a little more about MI theory and how it is applied in the classroom. Don't ever accept that anybody is 'smarter' than you ever again!

MI Verb Application Example