Blog Entry 2

Authors when writing a story choose to either write from a first person, second person, or a third person point of view. In a first person point of view, the narrator tells about the events that they have personally witnessed or describing. A great example would be "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Gilman. Throughout the whole story, she talks about her disease or illness that she has. She is confined in this room that she says doesn't mind her but the wallpaper. "I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper. It dwells in my mind so!" (568). The author choosing to use first person gives us as the audience a good look at how being confined in a room or to bed rest and not being able to do anything can really mess with a person's mind. It added tension and doubt because it shows how the narrator relies on John as company even though he is not always there due to work as a physician himself. She also creates doubt of whether or not they do like or not like the wallpaper. It is intriguing the more she looks at like, the more she stares at it, the more she wants to figure out the pattern and actually says in the story that she doesn't want to leave just yet so that she can solve the pattern of the wallpaper. To me, the narrator gets crazier the more she is confined in the room. The method in my opinion hurt her more than helped. Second person point of view is considered the least known and more difficult to use. It can almost considered a first person point of view telling the listener what they have done before. "How to Become a Writer" by Lorrie Moore, uses the idea of second person point of view. The speaker in a sense is telling the audience what they should do or giving advice on "How to Become a Writer". The narrator frequently uses "you" as a sense of saying, "you should do this". "Take all the babysitting jobs you can get. You are great with kids" (198). "Tell your roommate your great idea, your great excuse for imaginative power: a transformation of Melville to contemporary life" (150). Even though the narrator is giving advice and using you, they use their own experience in the story to get the point across as for example, when they describe their parents getting divorced or even loosing their virginity. It is still considered second point of view. "The Lottery" uses a third person point perspective creating suspense and drama. It was like as if we were there watching the whole lottery unfold in front of our eyes. It showed what the other characters are doing to prepare for the lottery. It was suspenseful because while reading it, I thought it was actually talking about winning money. The more the narrator was describing what was happening and the characters reactions, I realized it wasn't that at all. The story described the kids grabbing the smooth and rough stones before the lottery and the suspense of each family drawing from the black box. Each author creates its own point of view to suspense, drama, and tension in their stories.