James is the teenage boy at the center of the summer romance in Taylor Swift’s “august.”
The song is narrated by a girl who becomes involved with James during the summer. James is already connected to Betty, and the temporary relationship eventually ends when he returns to her. His actions connect “august” to two other Folklore songs.
In the album’s love-triangle narrative, “august” represents the unnamed girl’s perspective, “Cardigan” represents Betty’s perspective, and “Betty” represents James’s perspective. Together, the three songs present different views of overlapping teenage relationships.
A common mistake is treating August as the narrator’s actual name. Swift said she privately imagined the character as Augusta or Augustine, but the song itself does not name her. James, by contrast, is explicitly identified in the story.