Narrator and point of view

The short story “Through the Wardrobe” by Lucy Caldwell is written in the second person. This technique helps the author address the readers directly with the pronoun “you”:

It starts with the Belle dress. Your mum takes you all to the store in Donegall Place the week it opens (…) Inside is the most magical place you’ve ever seen. Your sisters go hopping and squealing to the cuddly toys at the back, heaped right to the ceiling: but you just stand, clutching your mum’s hand, unable to move or even to breathe. 

By breaking the fourth wall and addressing the readers, the author brings the readers into the story. Therefore, the second-person narrative helps readers identify with the main character and experience events as if they are happening to them. 

Although the second-person point of view is rarely used in fiction, it helps readers empathize with the things the main character experiences. By putting themselves into the boy’s shoes, readers get a feel of his inner conflict created by his gender identity: “You have dreams where you ache, in places deeper than you can reach”.

The second-person point of view also withholds the identity of the character a while longer. At the start, when t...