lukewarmwater

I looked them up at dictionary.com and still not sure of the differences.

1st person says:
The grammatical category of forms that designate a speaker or writer referring to himself or herself. Examples of forms in the first person include English pronouns such as I and we and verb forms such as Spanish hablo “I speak.”

2nd person says:
The grammatical category of forms that designate a speaker or writer referring to the person addressed. Examples of forms in the second person include English pronouns such as you and verb forms such as Spanish hablas “you speak.”

3rd person says:
The grammatical category of forms that designate a person or thing other than the speaker or the one spoken to. Examples of forms in the third person include English pronouns such as she and they and verb forms such as Spanish hablan “they speak.”

I think but I'm not sure that the differences is that 1st person is what is happening and third is what has happened. But if thats correct then whats second person.

Any help would be great.

p.s.
Also if you could list an example of each. i.e. blade runner is 1st person, blade runner directors cut is third person

Tscott

Simply:
1st person = I
2nd person = You
3rd person = he/she/*insert name here*

Examples:
1st
I woke up that morning with a feeling something was wrong. I turned to look at my clock but it had stopped and I had overslept.

2nd
You wake up with a feeling something is wrong. Turning to your clock you see it had stopped and you have overslept.

3rd
Warren woke up that morning with a feeling something was wrong. He turned to look at his clock and saw it had stopped and he had overslept.

It's all about the point of view of the narrator. Apart from a few changes in verb tense and such to make each example read better, each passage above tells the same thing, except for the viewpoint. The first is like someone telling a story that happened to them. Second, puts you into the story. Third is happening to someone other than the narrator or the reader.

2nd person is pretty rare especially in novels because it's awkward and hard to keep up over a whole story. 1st and 3rd are much more common.


Now, I've got a question for someone else... I recently read a story where the narrator lapsed into "we" quite frequently: "We look over her shoulder as she puts up the sign", "This is the person we've come to see", etc. Would this be considered 4th person, or what?

Josh-da-man

When something is told in the first person, think of it as being like a diary. "At noon, I went to the deli across the street for lunch. There is a waitress there who flirts with me, and I quite enjoy the attention." If you're reading a book where the narrator constantly refers to himself, then it's being told in the first person.

Second person -- which really isn't used a lot in literature -- is like an imperative senetence. Someone is addressing you directly. With second person, someone is being addressed directly, and like the description says, it will frequently use the verb "you" to directly reference the reader. "At noon, you go to the deli across the street for lunch. There is a waitress there who flirts with you, and I you enjoy the attention."

Third person is omniscient narration. Noone is being specifically addressed, neither the reader, nor the author as events are being described. "At noon, John went to the deli across the street for lunch. There is a waitress there who flirts with him, and he quite enjoys the attention."

That's verb tense, and doesn't really have anything to do with "person."

DarkestPhoenix

Second person is used quite a bit in literature.

Especially if you're some dork who lives for D&D.

I don't fall into that category, but damn if I didn't love those 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books as a kid.

Which, IMHO, is the highest form of literary storytelling.

Nick Danger

Third person can be subdivided:

Third person omniscient knows everything in the story. The narrator knows what every character is thinking, and what they're doing when they're offstage.

Third person objective only knows what the narrator sees and hears.

Third person limited omniscient knows what one character is thinking, but not what other characters are thinking. That is, we know that Walter enjoys it when the waitress flirts with him, but we don't know what's going on inside her head.

Nick Danger

I'd say that that's still first person, because "I" is part of "we". In grammar, "I" is "first person singular" and "we" is "first person plural".

Groucho

2nd person = "Choose your own adventure" books

lukewarmwater

Well Im still not sure about 1st and 3rd, i know second though, but is it first or third if it's like this.

I woke up that afternoon and realized I was late. I had to meet warren at the deli across the street. By the time I got there warren was already flirting with the waitress. She seemed like she wanted to get away. But if you saw warren you would do the same.

so catcher in the rye is 1st then right? and animal farm is third?

Nefarious

Catcher in the Rye is 1st person
Been too long since I read Animal Farm but I believe you are correct in that it is 3rd person.

Tscott

I'm not sure if I explained my question correctly. I'm thinking in particular of the book "Black House" by Stephen King and Peter Straub. In it the narrator is an ever present observer, not an actual character in the book, so it's like third person in the way it knows what multiple characters are thinking, where different events take place, etc. But it's written like someone or something is personally showing the reader everything they see on a tour through the story..

For example, the book starts out looking over the town of French Landing from the air and the narrator says things like "Moving toward the sun, we glide away from the river..." or "Directly below us, French Landing looks as though it had been evacuated in the middle of the night."

Later the narrator describes what's happening in a room while a character, named Burney, (who is alone in the room) sleeps "We move closer. We try to ignore the stench. We want to see what we can glean from the face of this curious fellow." This is followed by a brief backstory about that character that only Burney himself (or an omniscient narrator) would know and some words he speaks in his sleep barely audible. The scene ends with "Let's blow this pop stand, okay? Let's sail away from old Burny's ugly mouth- enough is enough. Let us seek the fresh air and fly north, over the woods."

It seems to have one or two characteristics to all three of the different "persons" in a way, but doesn't fit any of them exactly.

jmj713

It's not uncommon for a novel to have two or more narrators. One such example is another Stephen King novel, Christine, where it starts with a normal third person narration, then after a while it switches to first person of the main character. It's been a while since I'd read Christine, so feel free to correct me.

ben12

It's not a comic I read anymore, but Spider-Girl is famous for using 2nd person narration, in case anyone wants to read 2nd person done well.

Spider-Girl

majorjoe23

While I enjoy Spider-Girl, I find the use of second person annoying to the point of distraction.

ben12

I could see it being distracting. It wasn't for me - I found it kind of interesting and refreshing. But I think 2nd person is just so hard to do because of the whole 'breaking the fourth wall' aspect that's inescapable. Spider-Girl is the best I've seen it done in recent memory.

majorjoe23

My big problem with second person in Spider-Girl (and in general) is that it's completely jarring if it's a situation you can't relate to. "You jump across the 200 foot gap, tackling the Green Goblin in mid-air," when I read a line like that, my mind says that I couldn't do that.

Plus, I just don't like being told what to do. Tom DeFalco isn't the boss of me!

tasha99

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney is a pretty good example of sustained second person that wasn't (at least to me) too jarring.

movie diva

If I remember correctley the narrator is taking the reader along and that is why he is saying we, because he is talking to us.

tonyc3742

So that would be kind of 'first person' with no 'fourth wall', where the author knows 'you' are there reading and acknowledges that, unlike the 'diary' style of first person.