What does first person mean in literature?

A first-person narrator is when the story is told from the perspective of one of the characters, who refers to him/herself as "I" and "me." For example, "Harry and I went down to the store. I remember it was cold that day, and damp, and I was chilled to the bone. As we drove, I began to wonder what life would have been like if I'd never met Harry."

A third-person limited narrator is when the story is told from the perspective of one of the characters, but the character is referred to as "he/she" or "him/her," as in, "She and Harry went down to the store. It was cold that day, and damp, and she was chilled to the bone. As they drove, she began to wonder what life would have been like if she'd never met Harry."

The difference between a first-person and a third-person limited narrator is that with a first-person narrator, we are hearing the story directly from the character in the story. It is the character who is speaking to us. With a third-person narrator, it is not the character who is speaking to us. Rather, we are hearing the story from a narrator who knows exactly what the character is thinking and feeling. The narrator is telling us what the character sees, hears, thinks and feels. It is called a third-person limitednarrator because the narrator is limited to the perspective of just one character.

A third-person omniscient narrator is when the story is told from the perspective of many different characters, as in, "She and Harry went down to the store. It was cold that day, and damp, and she was chilled to the bone. As they drove, she began to wonder what life would have been like if she'd never met Harry. Harry, on the other hand, didn't feel the cold at all. He was thinking only about the argument they'd had last night. Sometimes he felt as though she did not love him as much as he loved her." The narrator in this case is like God (omniscient): the narrator sees all and knows all, and tells the story from the perspective of many characters.

Much less common is second-person narration. That's when the story is told as if the narrator were talking to a specific person: "You and Harry went down to the store. It was cold that day, and damp, and you were chilled to the bone. As you drove, you began to wonder what life would have been like if you'd never met Harry."