Friday, May 23, 2008

Christine - Lesson 4 (Point of View)

Point of View in Christine (Signet): The first section of Christine (a novel in first person) is in the point of view of Arnie Cunningham's high school friend Dennis. This employs a technique of using a narrator who is not central to the action (a technique that goes back as far as The Canterbury Tales and . . . well, the gospels).

A non-central character has the advantage of giving room for a larger than life character to stretch without being bound to telling the story (Think Chief to McMurphy in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Sal Paradise to Dean Moriarty in On the Road, and Louis to Lestat in Interview with the Vampire. (Although the latter proves to be a fantastic narrator in The Vampire Lestat and subsequent books).The reader gets to see the narrator as others see him. With Dennis as narrator, we see Arnie's slide into obsession, and we also see Christine as Arnie can't see her - as something to fear.

However, a non-central narrator must be interesting in his or her own right (something Dennis definitely warms to). Also, there's the problem that a non-central narrator has to be present for key events in the narrator. This can get kind of convoluted (King drops Dennis's first person narrative for the middle section of the book).

Exercise: Check to see if you have a first person narrator who is central to the story. If so, consider whether or not it would be effective to change the point of view to a non-central character.

No comments: