Point of View (2)

Let's take a closer look at the three main points of view.

1^st Person POV

The narrator is "I" or "we".

I went to the store with my friend. The clerk said, “Hi.”

We bought candy and left.

2^nd Person POV

"You" are the main character in the story.

You stayed up late last night and now you’re tired, but you need to pass this class.

Note: 2^nd Person POV is very rarely used in novels.

Occasionally, it is used in campfire stories or interactive role-playing games.

After a while, you decide to go to the attic to check out the strange noise . . .
In the cave, you find a dragon guarding the magic amulet. What do you do next?

Most often, 2^nd person POV is used to give instructions or directions:

You go left on Main Street, and then you take a right at the church.

Note: Often, in these kinds of sentences (called imperative sentences), the "you" is left out, because it is easily understood that "you" are the subject of the sentence:

[You] go left on Main Street, and then [you] take a right at the church.
Go left on Main Street, and then take a right at the church.

3^rd Person POV

The narrator tells a story about other people.

The characters are referred to by their names, or by pronouns which substitute for their names:

he
she
they

The narrator is not a direct participant in the events of the story.

Chris loved basketball. Every day, he played after school. When it got dark, he watched it on TV.

The vast majority of novels are told from a 1st or 3rd person POV.
As noted above, use of 2^nd person POV is extremely rare in novels; however, it is commonly used when giving directions.

Determining Point of View

When asked to determine a narrator's POV:

Ignore the dialogue (the words in quotation marks spoken by the characters).
Only look at the words that the narrator (the story-teller) says.
In the example below, "I" am the one who is telling the story—so the story is told from a 1^st person POV. My mom is just a character in the story.

As soon as I got home, I flopped down on the couch.

My mom asked me, “How was school today?"

"It was terrible," I answered. "I'm never going back."

Instructions for the Quiz

Determine the narrator's point of view.

1^st person
2^nd person
3^rd person

Quiz