Which statement best differentiates first-person and third-person point of view regarding access to thoughts?

• A. First-person provides access to all characters' thoughts; third-person provides none.
• B. First-person reveals only what the narrator experiences; third-person can reveal thoughts of multiple characters or be limited or omniscient.
• C. First-person is always biased; third-person is always unbiased.
• D. First-person always uses plural pronouns; third-person uses singular.

Answer: (B)

Point of view determines whose internal thoughts the reader can access. In a first-person narration, the story is told by a character using “I,” so the reader gets insight only into that narrator’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences. The perspective is limited to what that narrator experiences directly, not the inner lives of other characters unless the narrator reveals them through speech or observation. In contrast, third-person narration uses he, she, or they and can vary: it may enter the thoughts of multiple characters (omniscient), focus on the thoughts of one character (limited), or even present the external events with no access to anyone’s inner thoughts (objective). That combination—first-person revealing only the narrator’s thoughts versus third-person capable of revealing various characters’ thoughts or choosing to reveal none—best captures the distinction.

The other statements fall short because first-person does not give access to all characters’ thoughts, third-person can provide thoughts, and POV doesn’t determine bias or pronoun use in the way those options imply.