One of the authors you will undoubtedly be reading in the
years to come--if not this year--is Edgar Allan Poe. Any of his works would serve to
demonstrate the use of a first-person point of view. I've linked below to "The Cask of
Amontillado" because it's one you 're likely to read first. First person, of course,
means there is a narrator who tells his own story. In this story, Montressor opens the
story with these lines (I added the bold for
emphasis):
The thousand injuries of Fortunato
I had borne as I best could,
but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who
so well know the nature of my soul,
will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a
threat. At length I would be avenged;
this was a point definitely, settled—but the very definitiveness with which it was
resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish
but punish with impunity.
The
consistent use of I, me, and
my (as opposed to he,
she, or it) is how you know the story is told
in first person. Any one of Poe's short stories would work for you as an example. I've
included an e-notes link to the story in full text, below, in case you want to read
more.
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