The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of point of view on attitude in literary response. Subjects were tenth-grade students who read on grade level and who had successfully completed all average ninth-grade English requirements. Attitudes toward the study concept of mental illness were measured by a semantic differential. Subjects were divided into three groups which reflected neutral attitudes and three which reflected negative attitudes. One neutral and one negative group read a first-person-narrated text, the second neutral and negative groups read a neutrally narrated version of the same text, and the third neutral and negative groups read an editorially narrated version. Subjects then completed a second semantic differential and wrote a free response on their reaction to the text and a directed response on their reaction to the main character. Analysis of data showed that subjects with neutral attitudes responded positively to the character with the greatest positivity associated with the first-person narrative and the least positivity associated with the neutral narrative. Subjects with negative attitudes responded with the most negativity when exposed to a first-person-narrated text and the least negativity when exposed to the neutrally narrated text. (Author/JM)