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A & J  Alex Brown and Jessica Stanton Emotion and personal language is given certain depth based on the point of view from which it is told. The Siren Song, by Margaret Atwood, is a prime example of the way that an author can use point of view to add more depth to a piece of literature. The point of view in this poem shows the reader the mocking tone of the Siren, who narrates the piece. The change in the point of view allows the narrator to use language that contributes to the meaning and the emotion of the poem.If told from a different point of view, the meaning and the tone of this poem would change entirely. Atwood’s change in the point of view helps convey the tone of the poem. The narrator starts by talking third person, someone just explaining to another person that no one knows what the song is, and then switches to first person, revealing that one of the sirens is actually narrating this poem. In first person, the siren now tells us that she is bored with her life, that she doesn’t, “enjoy singing this trio, fatal and beautiful”, and then goes on to share the secret, since she’s a siren and can tell us what it is. By seducing the person listening to the poem, she is sharing her siren song, her song of boredom and that, “only you can” save her. This becomes mocking because she wants help, yet she only uses the thought to seduce and destroy more people. The poem is mocking because the siren sings her song of uniqueness and secrets, of wanting to be saved, and yet that song is what destroys them, although “it is a boring song”, mocking them even further. The point of view is important in the poem, because it starts out as a general idea, then it goes into the specific song of the siren narrating.  Just as the tone is changed by the point of view, so is the language used. The switch to the first-person point of view allows the Siren to entice and complement her audience. For example, the siren sings, “Only you, only you can, you are unique” (23-24). The first person tone of this conveys the meaning that her words are supposed to be seductive, the Sirens own way of tricking the audience to do what she wants. Despite the “beached skulls”(6) a man can still be made to do ones bidding through complements and seduction. At the end of the poem the siren says “Alas it is a boring song”(25-26). Without the first person point of view in the second half of the poem, the Siren’s emotions would not have been able to come through. She sounds bored, exhausted and dissatisfied throughout the poem. The point of view in the poem allows the Siren to use her own personal language, giving more meaning to her own words. In The Siren Song, Margaret Atwood demonstrates the importance of point of view and the way it can add depth to a literary work. The point of view communicates the mocking tone of the piece to the reader. It further adds depth to the poem by having the narrators emotion come through the text. Writers are able to add emotion and meaning to a story through the use of point of view.