Living the Fictional Dream

Main characters aren’t always the brightest bulbs in the shed, but when a character does veer into the stupid zone, it is so much more irritating to me as a reader when the story is told in the first person point of view.

The problem is that for the reader to know something more is going on than what the main character sees (or allows him/herself to see), it has to be there on the page. We’ve got to see all the things that the main character misses, and if we see it, it’s hard to understand sometimes why the main character doesn’t see it. If I, as a reader, see these things, I may want to thwap the main character when they are obtuse.

In third person, there is a bit of distance between the narration and the main character’s point of view. Even in third person limited, there is still a sense of space between the narration and the main character’s mind.

In the first person, however, the narration is completely filtered through the main character’s eyes and mind. If the main character doesn’t see it, know it, or experience it somehow, the reader can’t know it. So, since the reader has to experience it, there are times that it will drive me crazy when they overlook or don’t understand whatever it is.

Of course, sometimes, people misunderstand things. I can forgive that in a character to a certain extent, but it gets to a point where it’s no longer a misunderstanding, but stupidity.

Take, for example, the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast. I recently read the latest installment, Untamed, and the main character, Zoey, kept observing things, such as the behavior of one of her friends, that was contrary to what Zoey would have liked it to be. And she kept rationalizing it to herself, denying it, in essence. Once or twice, maybe I could have put up with, but over and over again she did it! Her stupidity started to really grate on my nerves. I was right there in her head with her, and she just refused to actually see what was going on! And, the thing is, Zoey is not stupid by nature, but I get the feeling that she had to miss/deny this crucial fact to herself so that the plot could continue to progress unhindered.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still like the HoN series. It’s addicting — Y/A vampire crack would probably be the most appropriate term. I even like the character of Zoey for the most part — she manages a destiny and a significant subset of powers without (so far) falling into that Mary Sue unbelievability that eventually assails other characters (e.g., Anita Blake and Bella Swan).

But sometimes I just want to shake Zoey for not being able to see what is right in front of her face.
If the story were told in the third person, maybe it would be easier to accept that she didn’t understand the implications of what she saw. Or even to believe that she didn’t see it at all. Not noticing something is one thing. Seeing it and not understanding it is stupidity.

So, perhaps, if you’re going to make your main character stupid or obtuse, I think it would be very wise to stay far away from first person narration. Or, alternatively, how about we not make the characters stupid at all — or at least not simply for sake of foreshadowing or the plot. If a character is going to have a stupid moment, make it something that arises from the character, not as a method for moving the plot along!