The second person narration reads as if a secondary character is addressing the reader as the main character. For example, a second person narration may read: “As you and I looked up the hill we knew it would be a tough climb. You looked at me and said, ‘Come on kid, let’s go.’”
Second person narration is heavily inundated with the use of the personal pronoun “you” in a narrative manner opposed to a communicative one. For instance, a first person narration may read: “Suddenly, I yelled out to the boy, “Hey you. Get out of the road!’” But a second person narration would read: “Suddenly you yelled out to the boy, “Hey you. Get out of the road!’” In the second example the first “you” is the main character.
In a second person narration, “you” overwhelmingly refers to the protagonist—as if the main character had no recollection of his actions and was being told a recounting of what he did.
The personal pronoun “you” is used as a catalyst to drive the plot of the story forward. This trait is similar to first person narration in that if the main character isn’t there, the story stalls.
Unlike other forms of narration which use “you” as a component of dialogue, the second person narration uses “you” in a representative fashion. In a sense, you (the reader) are the main character.