The body door Stephen King

The body’
by Stephen King.

Narrative style

The narrative style of the body is ab ovo. This means the narrative starts at the beginning of the plot. And thus the plot will still develop throughout the book.

Flashbacks and/or flash-forwards? Yes, the whole story is an flashback. Since Gordon Lachance is actually telling us the story from his memories. Once in a while the flashback stops and we’re being taken back to the thoughts of the older Gordon.

The story is being told in a chronological order

Genre

The genre of The Body is an action/drama

Point of view (In short POV)

The point of view in the Body is the First Person Point of View. While quite often the point of view lies within the protagonist of the story, in the Body the point of view lies in The older Gordon. Since, stated above, Gordon Lachance is telling us the story about the body.

Omniscient or Limited POV? The point of view of Gordon Lachance is limited. We only know what’s going on inside his (younger) mind.

Characterization

Gordon (a.k.a. Gordie) Lachance (12 years old going on 13)

The protagonist of our story. He is a major dynamic character since he changes while the plot of the story unfolds.
What do we know about him?
He has one older brother, Dennis, who died prior to the start of the story through a Jeep accident. His parents were too fond of Dennis and therefore neglected Gordon hence to why he got so little attention. He feels as if he should’ve been the one that died since he was an ‘accident’, the doctor told his parents that they were infertile and that he wouldn’t have been missed by people if he did die. He has a terrible relationship with his father since he judges people – like his friends Chris and Vern too much.

Chris Chambers

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Chris is a major dynamic character since he too changes throughout the development of the plot. Example: in the middle of their journey Chris told Gordon that he probably would enter a shop course instead of a college course. But after their journey it is stated that Chris too went to college course. Also just like Gordon he too stopped with going to their clubhouse.

What do we know about him?
His father is a horrible drunk, which he almost always is. His family has a bad reputation because of this. Many people in town – him included think that because of the bad reputation he won’t make it very far in life. He however is smarter than most people think.

Vern Tessio

Vern is a minor static character since he doesn’t change (a lot) as the plot progresses. Example: after their journey he still happily continues with his life as if nothing happened. He found new friends (with Teddy) and they still go to the clubhouse together.
What do we know about him?
He has one older brother: Billy. While Vern was digging around their porch he overheard Billy and his friend Charlie talking about a body, the body of Ray Brower. He is a bit dumb and gets scared easily. Usually does his hair in the style of his rock and roll idol, Bobby Rydell

Teddy Duchamps

Teddy is just like Vern a minor static character. He too doesn’t change (a lot) as the plot progresses. Example: after their journey he still happily continues with his life as if nothing happened. He found new friends (with Vern) and they still go to the clubhouse together.
What do we know about him?
His appearance is bit weird for he has a hearing aid and thick glasses. He has quite the laugh: eeee-eee-eee. His hearing aid was the consequence of his father shoving him down for 10 seconds on hot burning iron plate. His Father is a former veteran and has PTSD. However despite all this he still loves his father very much. He is often referred to as dumb and crazy.

Billy Tessio, Richard Chambers, Fuzzy, Ace and Charlie Hogan

The antagonist of our story(?). They are all minor static characters. At the end of the story we only know that Ace is still alive.
What do we know about them?
They are a group of friends that also go searching for the body of Ray Brower for fame. Charlie and Billy are the only ones that know about the body but after they spoke everyone knew. They believe the body is rightfully theirs since Charlie and Billy are the ones that found the body of Ray Brower first.

Milo Presser & Chopper

They are both minor static characters. The own the dump and scare the 4 boys when they are on dump-property. He insults Teddy and his father which makes teddy extremely mad.

Theme

The subtitle ‘Fall from innocence’ could be roughly translated to unknowing. The boys are unknowing of the hard facts of life. With the boys entering their adolescence it somehow also represents that they need to grow up. By venturing on this journey they do both, they find out that life and death aren’t too far apart. And by finding the body they, in a way, lose their innocence as well. Because they hadn’t seen anything really drastic in their life yet, and then they find the body.

Motifs

The deer Gordon sees

Symbolizes the fact that Gordon thinks that some things are too beautiful or precious and by putting it into words will make them lose their worth – diminish their worth.

The coin toss

It shows the future of the boys. In the first toss they all have the same symbol, they all share the same fate. And then in the second toss Gordon is the one alienated. He has the ‘bad luck’ and has to get some food. In the future Gordon is the only one left alive. All the others have died quite early. The bad luck turned out to be quite the good luck later on.