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Difficulty: MediumIdentification of Narrative Point of View and Style

Read the unseen prose extract below carefully:

"The brass bell tolled six times across the quiet compound. Bisi wiped the perspiration from her forehead and glanced nervously at the closed mahogany door. Behind it, the panel was deciding her fate, though she knew nothing of the secret dossier tucked beneath the chairman's desk, nor of the cable that had arrived from Lagos an hour prior."

Which narrative point of view is deployed in the excerpt above?

  1. Third-person omniscient perspectiveAnswer
  2. B
    Third-person limited perspective
  3. C
    First-person central perspective
  4. D
    First-person peripheral observer perspective

Answer

Third-person omniscient perspective
The correct answer is the third-person omniscient perspective. The narrator operates outside the story space while demonstrating an all-knowing awareness, sharing details about the secret dossier and the incoming cable from Lagos that the character Bisi is explicitly unaware of.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the pronouns used to refer to the character in the passage.
The text uses third-person pronouns such as "she" and "her".
Determines whether the narrative operates in first-person or third-person.
2
Analyze the scope of the narrator's knowledge.
The narrator reveals information that Bisi explicitly does not know ("she knew nothing of the secret dossier... nor of the cable").
Differentiates third-person limited (restricted to one character's awareness) from third-person omniscient (all-knowing).
3
Conclude the narrative point of view based on scope and voice.
Because the narrator is all-knowing and uses third-person references, the perspective is third-person omniscient.
Matches the defined literary characteristics of the point of view.

Key Concept

Third-Person Omniscient Narrative Perspective
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Topics

Identification of Narrative Point of View and Style

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