The Point of View Essay

The Britain’s Point of View

            Author’s note: This is about explaining the point of view in Give me Liberty on how the reader really gets influenced about who’s the bad guy and who’s the good guy. So I explained what the reader might of thought if the book was in the bad guy’s point of view. 

            The book Give me Liberty, by L.M. Elliot, is set in revolutionary times and is about the Americans fighting for liberty against the British. The story is written in Nathaniel’s point of view. Nathaniel’s point of view shows the Americans as the good guys and the British as the bad guys. What if the story was told through the eyes of one of the British soldiers? Thinking of the perspective from which this story is told, a lot of events and characters are described in a way that creates anger in the reader about the British.

            One way that Nathaniel’s point of view influences the reader is how the battles between the Americans and the British are described when Nathaniel was in a battle and he made it seem like the British were monsters and that all they wanted to do was kill the Americans. He even told himself that he was exhilarated about every cannon ball shot that missed him. The characters influenced the reader because every time the British captain said fire he would become very frightened. The British soldiers and captains were bad guys in Nathaniel’s point of view.  The reader also is influenced when Nathaniel turns on his friend Moses who is in the British army. That’s how a powerful main character can change the feeling of a story.

            However, the reader would feel a lot differently about the fights if the novel were written in Moses’ point of view. For instance, the reader wouldn't think that Britain’s were the bad guys. In fact, they would actually be the good guys. The reader would think that the Americans were being selfish and that they can’t stand the fact that they had to pay taxes. The reader could possibly even be Nathaniel is a horrible man who fights for slave masters. He even asked Nathaniel “You want me to fight for slave masters?” (p. 323).  Another thing that the reader could think is that the British king could be their hero. It would’ve been very different if the point of view would’ve been in Moses’ perspective.

            In Give me Liberty, the narrator's perspective makes the reader see the British as the bad guys. Maybe the reader wouldn’t be so angry with the British if the point of view were in Moses’ perspective. The reader would be angry with the Americans if Moses had told the story. I think the story would be way more exciting if it was in Moses’ point of view.