Biography and Third-Person Point of View
What Is the Difference Between
First- and Third-Person Narration?
Feature Menu
Autobiography and First-Person
Introduction
Who is speaking?
That is one of the first questions you should ask when you read.
Introduction
Nonfiction writers often tell their own life stories, but they also frequently describe the lives of others.
Autobiography An account of a person’s own life
Biography An account of another person’s life
Introduction
When you read nonfiction, it’s important to
• identify the speaker, or narrator
• recognize different types of narration
Autobiography and First-Person Point of View
The most personal kind of nonfiction writing is autobiography.
An autobiography is a writer’s account of his or her own life.
auto+ -bio+ -graphy
“self” “life” “writing”
Autobiography and First-Person Point of View
First-Person Narration
An autobiography is written from the first-person point of view.
The writer uses first-person pronouns: we us our me my
I mine
Autobiography and First-Person Point of View
Here is an example of the first-person point of view in an autobiography.
I was eleven years old when I visited a big city for the first time. Everything amazed me: the crowds, the traffic, the excitement. What impressed me most was the sight of a man washing windows near the top of a skyscraper. I couldn’t believe how calm he looked while hanging in midair. I decided right then that when I was old enough, I’d learn how to do that job.
Autobiography and First-Person Point of View
Quick Check
I didn’t know anything about my heritage until I was almost ten years old. Then my cousins from
Armenia came to visit our family in Fresno for two weeks. What a wild experience that was!
Fortunately, they spoke English very well. They told us fascinating stories about the village where our greatgrandparents lived.
What words in this paragraph tell you it is written from the first-person point of view?
[End of Section]
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
A biography is a person’s life story written by another person.
Biographers spend a lot of time—sometimes many years—learning as much as they can about their subjects.
The Moses of Her People
Subject: Harriet Tubman
Author: Sarah Bradford
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
A biographer may collect information from many different sources.
Firsthand Accounts
• interviews
• letters
• diaries
Secondhand Accounts
• newspaper and magazine articles
• historical accounts
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
If the person lived long ago, the biographer reads historical accounts of the time.
• These sources help the writer understand the world in which the subject lived.
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
If the subject is still living, the biographer may interview him or her.
• If the person died in the recent past, the writer often can find and interview people who knew the person.
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
Third-Person Narration
Biographers do not write as “I” because they are not the subject of the life story.
Instead, they write from the third-person point of view.
his he
They use third-person pronouns such as her she they their them
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
Here is an example of third-person narration in a biography.
The famous writer William Saroyan was born in Fresno, California, in 1908. His parents, who were Armenian immigrants, struggled to support their four children. William’s father died young, and William and his siblings spent several years in an orphanage.
William left school early but continued to educate himself at Fresno’s public library. Smart and talented, he knew by age twelve that he wanted to be a writer.
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
No book is large enough to tell everything about a person’s life.
A biographer must decide what to include—and what to leave out.
The biographer chooses events that reveal something important about the person.
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
When you read a biography, think about
• what details are included
• what they tell you about the subject
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
Quick Check
Success was slow in coming to
William Saroyan. Despite many rejections, he kept writing his unique stories and sending them to magazines. Finally, in 1933, Story magazine published his story “The
Daring Young Man on the Flying
Trapeze.” Saroyan then boldly wrote to the editors to tell them that he would send one new story a day for a whole month. He did—and many were later published.
What important details does the writer give? What do they tell you about the subject?
[End of Section]
Shifting Points of View
In both autobiographies and biographies, writers may change the point of view from which they record events.
First-Person Point of View
Allie was my best friend in middle school. We spent hours playing kickball in my backyard, studying together, and sharing secrets.
Third-Person Point of View
When her mother got sick, Allie had to take over many of the household chores.
Amazingly, she still got straight A’s that year.
Shifting Points of View
Quick Check
I heard the following South
African folk tale when I was a child. One day, a jackal and a hyena took turns jumping up onto clouds and eating them.
When the jackal had to come down to earth, the hyena caught him. When the hyena needed help, however, the jackal played a mean trick.
At what point in this passage does the point of view change?
[End of Section]
Analyze Elements of Nonfiction
Your Turn
1. Explain the difference between an autobiography and a biography.
2. Choose an event from your life, and write about it using first-person narration.
3. Write about the same event using third-person narration.
4. How are your two accounts different? How are they the same?
