In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the first chapter is narrated by an unknown narrator in the third person. While the narrator is not introduced to the reader, it is clear through his storytelling that he is both deeply familiar with Oscar and his family as well as Dominican culture. Therefore, even though the narrator is not formally introduced, the reader is able to gather important background information that validates the narrator as a reliable storyteller.

Third-person narration tells a story using the pronouns "he, him, his, himself," "she, her, hers, herself," "it, its, itself," or "they, them, their, theirs, and themselves." An example of third-person narration in chapter 1 of the novel is the sentence "In the blessed days of his youth, Oscar was something of a Casanova." In this example, the narrator talks about Oscar using the third-person pronoun "his."