The Effect of Second-Person

One of the most distinguishing features of Lorrie Moore’s stories is her use of the second person. She uses this point of view to imitate how-to and advice books where the narrator helps the reader solve an issue in their life. She uses imperative sentences to command her reader, who is in a sense also the protagonist, through a problem they’re facing. But, her stories are parodies of real self-help books as the subjects Moore writes about are ones that most people don’t want to find themselves in, such as “How to Be an Other Woman.” They don’t seem to handle their situation in the best way, either.
The use of the second person also helps the reader connect with the narrator much more than if the story were written in the first of third person. Take, for example, the story “How.” The narrator is stuck in a relationship that she doesn’t want to be a part of anymore. At the same time, her boyfriend does everything he can to try and save their relationship. Eventually, after her boyfriend  gets sick, she leaves him. Since this story is told in second person, we know exactly how the protagonist feels. She’s been trying to break up with him for a long time, she just isn’t able to bring herself to do it since she occasionally falls back in love with him. Then, after he get sick, she doesn’t want to leave him right away. Because of this, she’s never able to find the right time to leave. Hearing the narrators side of things helps the reader understand her actions. If this same story were written from another point of view, it would be much harder for us to sympathize with her. It might seem like she wasn’t putting any effort into their relationship or that she felt because her boyfriend was getting sick. We would think that she’s cold and uncaring, just like we think the husband in “What is Seized” is cold.
Moore also helps the reader connect with the protagonist in “How” by providing different options throughout the story. You can meet your boyfriend “in a class, in a bar, at a rummage sale.” maybe “he teaches sixth grade” or maybe he “manages a hardware store.” You can meet another man, an actor, “in a restaurant or a store” and he can be “from Vassar or Yale.” These options allow the reader to choose their own situation, based on what they themselves are like. If you are more likely to meet a man at a rummage sale, rather than at a bar, that works. These small, but insignificant details, help the reader feel more like the protagonist of their own story. You get to choose how your story starts, but, no matter what situation you choose, the ending will still be the same. These details help the reader understand the narrator of the story better.

Comments

  1. K. WilliamsApril 17, 2018 at 4:42 PM

    I like your comparison between "How" and "What Is Seized" about how a character's "coldness" is impacted by perspective. I hadn't thought too much about how the husband in "What Is Seized" had felt, but the relationship timelines are similarly paced and influenced. I think that idea allows us to look deeper into both sides of the relationships in both stories, and makes them more interesting to think about.

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  2. UnknownApril 18, 2018 at 8:59 AM

    I agree that her "how-tos" have an ironic aspect to them. They're more helpful in what not to do rather than how to be blank. I know many people in our class, including myself, who wouldn't really be able to relate to a story of a woman playing the role of the 'other woman' but through the second person narrative, Moore is able to transport us into that character.

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  3. Dale RobbennoltApril 25, 2018 at 6:07 PM

    I agree that we are biased in each of these stories by the perspective we get with the second person narration. I think that the comparison between "What is Seized" and "How" is especially effective because these stories could be changed a lot with a different perspective. In "What is Seized" we never really get the perspective of the father, we don't really know what he is going through so it is very easy to simply label him as 'cold.' If we had his perspective we could find that he in a situation much more like the one in "How." He might in fact feel that he is trapped in this relationship with no way out, and that could be the source of his coldness.

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  4. Arielle SummittApril 28, 2018 at 1:29 PM

    I like your take on the effect of the narrator giving the reader several possible scenarios/options in "How." When I wrote about her doing this in my blog post, I talked more about what this does for the plot of the story and not so much the reader. I didn't really consider it as her giving the reader options in order to help them make the story more their own, but rather just something to further emphasize the narrator's boredom and indifference toward her own relationship. I really like the idea of "How" being a kind of "choose your own adventure" story for readers that allows them to pick a story that best matches the situation that they're in.

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  5. UnknownApril 29, 2018 at 5:49 PM

    I think the stories are very compelling as well. I like how connected we feel to the people in the story due to the second person narrative. The inevitability of How also drew me in. I found all of Moore's collection intriguing and daring in narrative voice and story themes.

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