How do I analyse the narrative perspective?

To analyze narrative perspective you look for and identify
the perspective from which the story is being told and the omniscience or limitedness of
information known and conveyed. There are two possible perspectives from which to tell a
story: from without the story and from withing the story. There several degrees of
knowledge conveyed: only personal knowledge, knowledge of one or more characters,
knowledge of all the characters. Let's elaborate on these.

If a story
is told from a perspective that is
without (outside of) the story, the
narratorial voice is not a character in the story. The narratorial voice can be thought
of as the voice of an oral story teller: someone who recounts a story that is devoid of
their own personal involvement. If a story is told from
within (inside of) the story, the
narratorial voice is a character in the story. The narratorial voice can be thought of
as belonging to a character who has a share of the action and conflict and resolution
that comprises the story. This may be a central character and is often the main
character or it may be a minor character who is a participant and observer--or maybe
even just an observer.

When the story is told from a narratorial
perspective without the story, the
narrator may be fully omniscient and know the thoughts, feelings, motives, and emotions
of every character and thus be able to reveal anything any character thinks or feels
etc. On the other hand, this external type of narrator may be limited in perspective
with knowledge of only one or a few of the characters thoughts, feelings etc. Other
characters would be reported on based only on their words and actions and visible
attitudes--things readily observable to the narrator.

When the story
is told from a narratorial perspective from
within the story, the narrator is
limited to what they themselves feel or think or desire. In other words, the only
thoughts, feelings, emotions, or motives they know are their own. They also know what
they can observe of other character's actions, words, or visible attitudes. They also
can know and report what other characters confide to the them of their own inner
feelings, thoughts, or motives.

So to analyze the narratorial
perspective, you look for the location within or without of the narrator and you
identify the level of knowledge present. Then you can label the perspective as third
person (without the story and using he, she,
and
it) with limited knowledge, which is called
limited third person, or as third person with omniscient
knowledge, which is called omniscient third
person. Or you can label it as first person (within the story
and using I, me, my, mine, we, us, etc
as well as he
and she
etc) with limited knowledge, which is called
first person.