first,second, and third person?

Question

When I am reading literature I have a hard time understanding first, second and third person. I pretty much dont get the point of view. Can someone explain maybe a way to tell the point of view. Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

Most stories are told from the third person, that is, completely outside the characters. You get descriptions of things that happen all over.

True first person would only be told from the perspective of one individual, and you wouldn't learn anything in the story that that one individual saw/heard.

When you hear a characters thoughts (like in a voice-over), that is sort of dropping into first person.

I can't think of many "second person" stories, I guess they would be told from the perspective of "you".

Famous third person works: the Bible - you get descriptions of places, you get reports of what people do and say, but you don't ever really know what people are thinking (which can sometimes be different than what they are saying). Most TV shows: you only have people talking, you never hear their internal thoughts (although some slip into first person, like Wonder Years, or when you get a "voice over" to let you hear what the person is thinking which is different than what they are acting/saying)

Famous first person works: Moby Dick, told from the perspective of Ishmael. You only know what Ishmael thinks, and what happens, but you don't ever "hear" Captain Ahab's thoughts. Great Gatsby, where the story is narrated by Nick Carraway, and you know what Nick thinks, but you never know what Gatsby thinks, and Nick even gives us a couple of different stories that he has heard about where Gatsby really comes from, but Nick doesn't know if which, if any, are true.

Answer 2

The previous answer had all the pronouns that refer to the person, but in literature there is also an easy way to tell.

First person narrators are tellling the story from their point of view. They are directly involved and will use pronouns like I and say "I did this...I did that..." stuff like that. They are involved in the story and telling it how they saw it or experienced it.

Second person...I always tell my students that there aren't a lot of second person narration because it would be telling "You did this...you did that" which is a wierd way to tell a story. They main ones I can think of are those choose your own mystery books where they say "You are walking along a path and find a closed door. If you open the door turn to page such and such."

Third person narration involves a narrator that is observing the action but is not directly involved. They say things like "he did blah blah." They tell the story that is happening to other people, not to themselves and are usually not very directly involved in the story.

Hope that helps :)

Answer 3

First person (I) is easy to tell because everything is written as if the writer was there and only stuff the narrator can see or hear is reported directly.
Third person (he, she, they) is almost as easy although it can be obscured at times. The writer/narrator can report on anything including thoughts of people not expressed in talk and moods of people who are alone. The various forms of third person may place limits such as reporting no internal dialogs - just what we would hear if a fly on the wall - up to knowing everything.
Second person (you) is a form of speech and is rarely used in fiction. I am writing in second person above because I am basically lecturing you - addressing you.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

"First person" narrative technique is when one of the characters tells the story, and refers to himself in the "first person tense"...with words like "I" or "we".
Example: "I can still remember the first time I saw Paris..."

"Second person" narrative technique is when the author talks directly to the reader, using second person pronouns such as "you".
Example: "To get to the cabin, you first have to climb a large hill..."

"Third person" narrative style is when the story participants are clearly NOT the the person telling the story, or the person to whom the story is told.
Example: "He was a big man, with a large grizzled beard, and his wife was bigger still..."

Quick way to remember "person":
1st person is the person speaking.
2nd person is the person spoken TO.
3rd person is the person spoken ABOUT.

Answer 6

1st person
when the book's main character always described as I
ex:...and then i found the glass and drank the water...

2nd person
when the book's main character always described as u
ex: and then u found the glass and drank the water...

3rd person
when the book's main character always described as she/ he
ex: and then she (or her / his name) found the glass and drank the water...

and i mean it's not only in one or two sentence, but in all the chapters or book.
normally, the book contains just one of these options. i mean that the author is always concern with one of it since the beginning.

Answer 7

I draw stick figures to explain 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person. You may want to sketch this out on a scrap paper:

1st person singular:
Picture yourself standing alone, pointing to yourself. Put a speech balloon above yourself with the words, "I, Me" in it. That's 1st person singular.

1st person plural:
Picture you and your friend standing together talking about yourselves. You have your arm around your friend, with your heads close together. (Or, you could point one finger at yourself, and the other at your friend.) In the speech balloon which is attached to both of them, write "We, Us".

2nd person singular:
Picture you standing alone, speaking across a space, to another person, about him/her. Point at them. In your speech bubble, write "You".

2nd person plural:
Do the same thing as 2nd person singular, but this time you are speaking to a group of people. Again, you point at them, and the word inside the speech bubble is "You".

3rd person singular:
Picture yourself standing sideways, facing one person, and speaking about a 3rd person who is standing behind your back, a little distance apart. You point behind you at that 3rd person. In your speech bubble it says, "He, She, It, Him, Her."

3rd person plural:
It's the same thing as above, except there is a group of people behind you. Your speech bubble says, "They, Them."

Answer 8

FIRST PEROSN IT CONBUTING DIRECTLY TO YOU AKA THE SPEAKER ITSELF SUCH AS " I WAS" OR "I SAID".
SECOND SPEAKER FERERS TO WHOM THE SPEAKER IS SPEAKING SUCH AS "YOU WILL" OR "YOU ARE".
AND THIRD PERSON IS FRERRING TO ANY PERSON OR ANYTHING ONE OR ONES THE SPEAKER ADRRESSES SUCH AS "THEY", "IT", "HE", "SHE" HOPES THIS HELPS

Answer 9

. First person is the person speaking:
I, we
me, us
my, mine, our, ours

2. Second person is the person spoken to:
you, your, yours

3. Third person is the person or thing spoken about:
he, she, it
his, her, hers, its
him, her, it
they, them, their, theirs