Point of View

Further playing into the depths of the human mind, King constantly switches the point of
view by which the story is told. It shifts between characters, styles, and even time periods to
scatter the readers across different events, but eventually unify them into a single plot. A
seamless train of thought perspective through the multiple characters creates a dialogue that not
only tells the story, but brings the reader into the middle of it.
The story takes place in two main periods: the summer of 1958, and twenty-seven years
later in 1985. Each main character is introduced, save for Bill Denbrough, in the latter era. The
reader is given a character and sees his or her traits and tendencies, along with a few thoughts
and fears standard in any novel. The story then shifts immediately to their childhood, which
explains them and all of their quirks and actions. In short, they become real. Ben Hanscom goes
from an architect with a taste for liquor to a kid bullied and scarred, physically and mentally, as a
child whose main escapes were the structure and order of the library and its books and the
expansive structures he made out Lincoln Logs.
The story is mainly told in the third person, except for the interludes which are voiced by
Michael Hanlon, but it the narration is fully omniscient and dives straight into the thoughts of
every character. Just as Poes first person style that makes his famous horror stories more
personal, King provides a direct insight into the psyche of the people of Derry. Here are my
eyes, so blue and so magnified behind these hateful, hateful glasses these horn-rimmed specs one
bow of which is held on with adhesive tape. Break the specs! Drive a shard into one of these
eyes and close it forever! What the hell! He closed his eyes and said: Ive got business in
Derry you see (61). The twisted thoughts pop out to the reader just as suddenly as if they had
popped into their own head. The graphic and violent thoughts are simply that, thoughts, but they
still drive a mood of uneasiness and apprehension into the readers. Through it the characters
become relatable, as their deepest desires are revealed, and in turn explain their motives.
The focus of character development in between the introduction of the plot and its
progression invites the reader into the story in a twisted way. The reader knows about the
monster and all of its murders, but not the story and is forced to focus on the citizens of Derry. It
becomes their tale, not that of some monster, which again makes it real. The reason horror
novels are scary is because they transfer the fear of its characters into the minds of its readers; a
task that is much simpler when that fear is caused by the thoughts and mentalities of relatable
and lifelike personas and not the monster itself.