What is the main character narrator?

We explain what the protagonist narrator is and how he tells a story. In addition, examples of this and the other types of narrators.

1. What is the main character narrator?

A leading narrator is understood as a narrative voice (a narrator) present in literary and other narratives, which is given the task of telling the plot in the first person (I), assuming the main role of it. In other words: it happens when the narrator is the same protagonist of the story.

The main storytellers tell their story with full awareness of themselves, so they use personal and subjective language , they allow personal references and digressions, and above all they can tell us only what they know or knew at that time, or at most that today they have been able to learn about the plot told.

This means that, as the story and the story are at the same time, the structural, temporal and narrative organization of the story obeys its convenience or personal considerations.

These types of narrators may well give their opinion, ask themselves questions, contradict themselves, doubt and express their subjectivity in other ways in the face of the story they tell us, since it is something that happened to themselves and they are not obliged to be impartial.

The main character narrator always uses the first person (singular or plural) to count. The autobiographies (real or fictional) are good examples of the use of this type of narrator.

2. Examples of protagonist narrator

Some examples of protagonist narrator are:

• Extracted from:  Lolita  (novel) by Vladimir Nabokov

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my entrails. My sin, my soul. Lo-li-ta: the tip of the tongue undertakes a three-step journey from the edge of the palate to rest, on the third, on the edge of the teeth. The. Li. Ta. It was Lo, simply Lo, in the morning, a forty-eight meter tall with bare feet. It was Lola with pants. It was Dolly at school. It was Dolores when he signed. But in my arms it was always Lolita. ”

• Extracted from: “Borges y yo” (short story) by Jorge Luis Borges

“The other, to Borges, is who things happen to. I walk through Buenos Aires and it takes me, perhaps mechanically, to look at the arch of a hallway and the door cancel; I have news from Borges by mail and I see his name in a list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I like hourglasses, maps, 17th century typography, etymologies, coffee flavor and Stevenson’s prose; the other shares those preferences, but in a vain way that makes them an actor’s attributes. It would be an exaggeration to say that our relationship is hostile; I live, I let myself live so that Borges can plot his literature and that literature justifies me. ”

• Extracted from: “The Last Client of the Night” by Marguerite Duras

“The road crossed the Auvergne and the Cantal. We had left Saint-Tropez in the afternoon, and drove into the night. I don’t remember exactly what year it was, it was in the middle of summer. I had known him since the beginning of the year. I had found him in a dance to which he had gone alone. It is another story. He wanted to stop before dawn in Aurillac. The telegram had arrived late, had been sent to Paris, and then forwarded from Paris to Saint-Tropez. The funeral should take place the next day, late in the afternoon. ”

3. Narrator in second person

There are narrator forms that use the second person (“you” or “you”) to count, although they are not usually too frequent . This way of narrating allows him to “speak” to the reader, forcing him to put himself in the place of the protagonist or the narrator (the “listener” of the narrator), to whom the story is referred. This resource can achieve very powerful effects of being used correctly in a narrative .

4. Omniscient narrator

The omniscient narrator is one who knows absolutely everything about his story and has it in great detail , being able to refer the reader to the thoughts of the characters , the events that occur behind the back of the protagonist and, in short, everything he wants.

It is a narrator “God”, since it is not usually part of the story , but it is present in every place and at all times. It is very common in fables and children’s stories, and those who pursue a final moral.