As I read the Stand Complete and Unabridged, I am noticing some things King does in writing that I thought were no-no's. No one ever said they couldn't or shouldn't be done -- I just assumed that logically you couldn't do that. Most of this has to do with point of view.
It is interesting to me that when disucssing the Trashcanman, King starts out with a tight narration of what is taking place in his head. Then he moves to the crazy man's memories. But then, he discusses things form the point of view of Transcanman's step father --who is long dead. This gives the reader information to Trashies background that even Trashcanman himself doesn't have.
Note this narration from chapter 34:
It wasn’t right, his mother marrying that Sheriff Greeley. The year he was in the fourth grade he had started lighting fires in mailboxes, that was the year he burned up old Mrs. Semple’s pension check, and he got caught again. Sally Elbert Greeley went into hysterics the one time her new husband mentioned sending the boy to that place down in Terre Haute (You think he’s crazy! How can a ten-year-old boy be crazy? I think you just want to get rid of him! You got rid of his father and now you want to get rid of him!). The only other thing Greeley could do was to bring the boy up on charges and you can’t send a kid of ten to reform school, not unless you want him to come out with a size eleven a-hole, not unless you wanted your new wife to divorce you." p.279So the narration went like this:
1. Trashcanman's memories and feelings about his mother marrying Sheriff Greeley.
2. Trashcan lighting fires.
3. SHIFT: Trashcanman's mother goes into "hysterics" when Greeley mentioned sending Trash out.
4. The narrator drops us into a conversation from the past between Trash's parents.
5. The last sentense is from Greeley's point of view.
Is there a way to chart that? First of all, I really like that kind of writing! That was great! But I didn't know it was allowed. I thought when telling the story from Trashcanman's point of view, the narrator would have to stay close to his memories and understanding. But King feels free to give us information that Trashcan himself was not privy to.
Well, theoretically you could look at it as Trashy thinking things that he heard his stepfather say out loud, either to his mother or to someone else. Or, possibly, something he's heard someone else say ABOUT the way his stepfather is looking at things.
ReplyDeleteI don't have an example right at hand, but I seem to remember King pulling tricks like that fairly frequently. On the face of things, it seems like a potential violation of point-of-view, but in actuality it might merely represent Trashy remembering things in a very specific manner. Which, frankly, would fit with him being autistic.