All four of the Classes of problem (Situation, Fixed Attitude, Activity, and Manipulation) show up in every complete grand argument story. As it turns out, one represents the way the Overall Story view sees the problem. Another represents the Main Character's view of it. Another represents the Impact Character's view. The remaining Class tells us how the problem looks from the Subjective Story view.

Each perspective is assigned to only one of the four Classes. No repetitions or omissions are allowed. Four perspectives combined with the four Classes gives you the four throughlines. For example:

The first key to creating thematic perspectives in a story is to assign each of the four throughlines to the four Classes in the structure. Once we do this, the most broad stroke foundations of the author's biases on the story's issues have been laid.

As an example, objectively, the problem in a particular story might be a situation. This means the Overall Story point of view and the Situation Class match or link in such a story. When we assign a point of view to a Class, we say that Class is the point of view's Throughline. In other words, everything we see in our story from the Overall Story view is in the Situation Class, so the Situation Class is the Overall Story Throughline.

Assigning a point of view to a Class creates the perspective, and therefore changes the way dramatic items in that Class appear.

For example, if the Overall Story Throughline is Situation, the story at large is about a situation that affects all the characters in the story to some degree. Such a story might be about people in a post-nuclear holocaust world, prisoners of war in a concentration camp, or two rival gang families stranded together on a deserted island. In each case, the external situation is the cause of the story's problems, when we see them objectively. Also in each case, the same situation affects all the characters in the story. This is the definition of the problem seen from the "they" point of view, like that of the general on the hill watching the battle. The audience wants to see what the problem looks like from this point of view. It gives them the feel that they explore the issues of the story fully.

In contrast, by assigning the Main Character point of view to the Situation Class, the Situation Class becomes the Main Character Throughline. In a different story with this arrangement, only the Main Character is in the situation. The other characters would be involved in one of the remaining Classes. In such a story where the Main Character Throughline is in a Situation, the situation might be the Main Character as second in command on a battleship. Or, perhaps he has a physical deformity like The Elephant Man, or a particular race or sex. In other words, we describe the Main Character by his personal situation, which is an external condition causing difficulties only for that character. This is different from an Overall Story situation that affects all the characters in a story (including the Main Character).