In English, the point of view is the narrator's position or perspective through which the story is being communicated. An author's point of view tells the reader who the person is experiencing the event or the topic of the writing.
All types of writing — fiction, song lyrics, nonfiction — are written from a point of view.
First, second, and third person are the three main types of point of view.
The author chooses a point of view to relate the story as if you were experiencing it, to force you into the story, or to allow the author to show different points of view. Here are some examples of point of view:
Identifying a point of view in a writer's work can sometimes be challenging. The best way to find the point of view is to skip the dialogue, go to the narration, and look at the pronouns used in the narrative:
1st, 2nd, 3rd Person | Subject | Object | Possessive | Reflective | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
det. | Pron. | ||||||
Singular | 1st | I | me | my | mine | myself | |
2nd | you | you | your | yours | yourself | ||
3rd | male | he | him | his | his | himself | |
female | she | her | her | hers | herself | ||
neuter | it | it | its | its | itself | ||
generic or 4th person | one | one | one's | – | oneself | ||
Plural | 1st | we | use | our | ours | ourselves | |
2nd | you | you | your | yours | yourselves | ||
3rd | they | them | their | theirs | themselves |
Usually, we speak in the first person when we talk about ourselves, our opinions, or our experiences.
Anytime a writer wants to share another person's life, you will see the first-person persoective. With a first-person view, every person reading the passage sees into the character's life.
Singular | Plural |
---|---|
I | Our |
Me | Ourselves |
Mine | We |
My | Us |
Myself |
John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the song, “In My Life” in first person:
New Yorker magazine writer and children's book author E.B. White often wrote in the first person, especially in his nonfiction essays. This excerpt is from "Goodbye to Forty-Eighth Street":
Choose first person when you want the reader to go along for the ride with you. You direct the action, sure, but the reader feels it. Consider these famous first-person plural words:
Novels from around 1900 to the present usually show this active, engaged point of view. Tasks ideal for the first person (singular or plural) include:
Places to avoid the first person:
First person narration can take different forms:
To read a gripping first-person narrative, revisit Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" trilogy.
Second person point of view is known as the “you” perspective. It is the perspective of the person or persons that the narrator is addressing. The second person perspective is identifiable by the author's use of second-person pronouns: you, yourself, your, yours, or yourselves.
Singular | Plural |
---|---|
You | You |
Your | Your |
Yours | Yours |
Yourself | Yourselves |
You all (y'all) |
The second person point of view attempts to turn the reader into the character. It is seldom used in novels but does give an immediate jolt.
The use of second-person perspective in novels or stories is rare, but it does exist. Consider this example from fiction, "Earth and Ashes" by Atiq Rahimi and Erdag Goknar:
Second person helps to deeply immerse new readers in many children's books. The entirety of "How to Babysit a Grandpa" is written as a second-person book of instructions:
The second person point of view is perfectly natural for recipes and directions. Here is a way to make lemonade, written in the second person:
With instructions and directions, second person can be an “understood” point of view:
“Turn to page 178 and solve problems 6 through 10.”
The understood but unwritten subject of that sentence is “You”, the pronoun is just left out.
The third-person point of view belongs to the people or person the narrator is referring to. Third-person pronouns are she, he, her, him, hers, his, herself, himself, it, its, itself, they, their, theirs, them and themselves.
Singular | Plural |
---|---|
She | They |
He | Them |
Her | Their |
Him | Theirs |
Hers | Themselves |
His | |
Herself | |
Himself | |
It | |
Its | |
Itself |
For the writer who must tell several interwoven stories, provide psychological distance between the subject and the reader, or who needs to stay neutral, nothing beats the third-person viewpoint.
All academic writing, most advertising, many novels, and most quotations or aphorisms are written in the third person.
The third-person limited point of view is when the narrator only has some access to the experiences and thoughts of the characters. Many times, the third person limited perspective limits the narrators access to the thoughts and experiences of just one character.
The third-person omniscient point of view is when the narrator has access to all the experiences and thoughts of all the characters in the story. An omniscient narrator knows the main character's thoughts and those of every other character in the novel or short story.
Here is a passage from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, showing the power of third person:
In fiction, third person allows a writer to put the reader into the heads of all the characters, explain important plot points, and present information in a seemingly neutral way.
Speaking in the third person is not typical, but people do it. It can be an excellent comedic effect or to grab someone's attention.
Here is an example of Larry speaking in the third person:
Sheila: Hey Jake, let's watch this movie! Larry loves this movie.
Jake: Oh yes, Larry is a huge fan of this one. Let's watch it!
Larry: What!? Larry does not like this movie.
The fourth person point of view is a term used for indefinite or generic referents. A common example in the English language is the word one as in “one would think that's how it works.” This example sentence is referring to a generic someone.
You may also see the fourth person point of view called the third person generic.
We all like to write in a natural way. As a writer, you have a duty to your reader to think carefully about your point of view. Many writers rewrite their work if the point of view seems awkward.
That paragraph went from first person to second person to third person, all in just three sentences!
The first-person point of view or a first-person narrator can fool a reader into trusting the narrator when the narrator is not a reliable reporter (great for mysteries, recounted tales, and fictional confessionals).
Many great novels such as "The Great Gatsby" are written from a first-person perspective. Another classic in first person pov is Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." It is clear who is narrating with the line "Call me Ishmael."
The second person is suitable for simple, direct storytelling (for children, recipes, assembly instructions, and the like).
A third person narrator creates the most distance between events and the reader. It is almost always seen as a reliable, neutral viewpoint. With the third person, the author can select the point of view of a single character or be omniscient (all-knowing, all present) and move in and out of the minds of all the characters.
After working your way through this lesson and video, you have learned:
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