15 Examples of First, Second and Third Person Narrator

First, second and third person

The storyteller it is the entity that tells a story. It is important to distinguish the narrator from the actual writer. The narrator is not a real person but an abstract entity. For this reason, in some cases the narrator may be the protagonist of the story, that is, a fictional character.

Narrators can be classified according to the person they use the most in their narration. The third person (he / them), the second person (you / you, you), the first person (me / us).

It is important to note that third person texts may not include the second and first person. However, when there is a second- or first-person narrator, many third-person snippets are often included as well, as will be seen in the examples.

Narrator types

In addition, the three forms can be used in different types of narrator according to the knowledge of what they narrate:

Examples of first person narrator

1. The good fortune of the tenant of the veil, Arthur Conan Doyle (witness narrator)

If you consider that Holmes remained actively practicing his profession for twenty years, and that for seventeen of them I was allowed to cooperate with him and keep a record of his exploits, it will be easily understood that I have a great mass of material at my disposal. My problem has always been to choose, not to discover. Here I have the long row of annual diaries that occupy a shelf, and there I also have the boxes full of documents that constitute a real quarry for those who want to study not only criminal acts, but also the social and governmental scandals of the last stage of the era Victorian. With regard to the latter, I want to say to those who write me distressing letters, begging me not to touch the honor of their families or the good name of their famous ancestors, who have nothing to fear. The discretion and high sense of professional honor that have always distinguished my friend continue acting upon me in the task of selecting these memories, and no one will ever be betrayed confidence.

1. Gulliver's journey to Lilliput, Jonathan Swift (main narrator)

I acted as a physician on two ships in succession and over six years made several voyages to the East and West Indies, which allowed me to increase my fortune. I spent my leisure hours reading the best ancient and modern authors, as he always carried many books with me. When he was on land, he studied the customs and the nature of the population, and tried to learn his language, which gave me a good memory.

1. Memories of the subsoil, Fyodor Dostoevsky (main narrator)

Even now, after so many years, that memory remains extraordinarily vivid and disturbing. I have many unpleasant memories, but... why not interrupt these memories here? It seems to me that it was a mistake to start them. Yet at least I have been ashamed for the entire time I wrote them, so they are not literature but punishment and atonement.

1. Funes the memorable, Jorge Luis Borges (witness narrator)

I remember him, the sullen Indian face and singularly remote, behind the cigarette. I remember (I think) his sharp braider hands. I remember near those hands a mate, with the weapons of the Banda Oriental; I remember in the window of the house a yellow mat, with a vague lake landscape. I clearly remember his voice; the slow, resentful, nasal voice of the old shoreman, without the Italian whistles of today.

1. The crumb, Juan José Arreola (main narrator)

The day Beatriz and I walked into that filthy barrack at the street fair, I realized that the repulsive vermin was the most atrocious thing fate could have in store for me.

Examples of second person narrator

1. Subsoil memories, Fiodos Dostoevsky

Well, try it yourself; ask for more independence. Take anyone, untie their hands, broaden their field of activities, loosen discipline, and… well, believe me, they'll want the same discipline to be imposed on them right away. I know that what I say will annoy you, that it will make you kick the ground.

1. Dear John, Nicholas sparks

In our time together, you held a special place in my heart that I will carry with me forever and that no one can replace.

1. If one winter night a traveler, Italo Calvino

Not that you expect anything particular from this particular book. You are someone who in principle no longer expects anything from anything. There are many, younger than you or less young, who come expecting extraordinary experiences; in books, people, trips, events, in what tomorrow holds for you. You do not. You know that the best to hope for is to avoid the worst. This is the conclusion you have reached, both in personal life and in general matters and even in world affairs.

1. Aura, Carlos Fuentes

You walk, this time in disgust, towards that chest around which rats swarm, their little eyes appear shining between the rotten floorboards, they scamper towards the holes in the wall rosette. You open the chest and remove the second collection of papers. You return to the foot of the bed; Mrs. Consuelo caresses her white rabbit.

1. Letter to a young lady in Paris, Julio Cortazar

You know why I came to his house, to his quiet, requested noon room. Everything seems so natural, as always when the truth is not known. You have gone to Paris, I stayed with the department on Suipacha Street, we elaborated a simple and satisfactory plan for mutual coexistence until September brings you back to Buenos Aires.

Examples of third person narrator

1. Night backs, Julio Cortázar (equiscient narrator)

Halfway down the long hallway of the hotel, he thought it must be late and hurried out into the street and retrieved the motorcycle from the corner where the doorman next door allowed him to store it. At the jewelry store on the corner he saw that it was ten minutes to nine; he would arrive in plenty of time where he was going. The sun filtered through the tall buildings in the center, and he - because to himself, to go thinking, he had no name - mounted on the machine, savoring the ride. The bike purred between his legs, and a cool wind whipped at his pants.

1. You don't hear the dogs barking, Juan Rulfo

The old man backed away until he found himself with the wall and leaned there, without letting go of the load from his shoulders. Although his legs were bending, he did not want to sit down, because afterwards he would not have been able to lift the body of his son, who had been helped to place it on his back, hours before. And so he had brought it on ever since.

1. Better than burning, Clarice Lispector

She had entered the convent at the imposition of her family: they wanted to see her protected in the bosom of God. She obeyed.

1. The feather pillow, Horacio Quiroga.

Her honeymoon was a long chill. Blonde, angelic and shy, the tough character of her husband froze her dreamy girlfriendship. He loved him very much, however, sometimes with a slight shudder when returning at night together down the street, he would sneak a glance at the tall stature of Jordan, mute for an hour.

1. Peronelle's song, Juan José Arreola

From her clear apple orchard, Peronelle de Armentières directed the first round of her love to Master Guillermo. She put the verses in a basket of fragrant fruits, and the message fell like a spring sun on the darkened life of the poet.

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