Plot
Stephan King did a fine job on the sequence of this story's plot. The interest of the reader is sparked by Vern's line, "You guys want to go see a dead body?" (pg. 299) By doing this, King is sure to have the reader's attention throughout the story because now the reader wants to see what a could of young boys will do to see a dead body up close and personal. King has the whole story in chronological order of Gordie's memories because it is essentially a memoir, but throughout the story, Gordie speaks about the present day sometimes too. "Nothing like that could happen in southwestern Maine today; most of the area has become suburbanizied, and the bedroom communities surrounding Portland and Lewistown have spread out like the tentacles of a giant squid." By expressing the plot like this, the reader truly does get the feel of an older man looking back on memories in his life. Lastly, I think it is important how the story ends. Present Gordie tells of how the young boys lived out the rest of their lives. This adds a special closing to this memory.
Point of View
"The Body" is written in the first person point of view of the character Gordon Lachance. Gordon is now older and tells this story that happened in his past. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this point of view. The reader knows that this information is reliable because the person who was actually present at the time is telling the story. Also, the reader gets to see what Gordie is thinking and feeling. These descriptions give the reader a better idea of what the moment was like. "I became acutely aware of all the noises inside me and outside me, like some crazy orchestra tuning up to play. The steady thump of my heart, the blood beat in my ears like a drum being played with brushes, the creak of sinews like the strings of a violin that has been tuned radically upward, the steady hiss of the river..." (pg.358) This point of view also has its disadvantages, because it can make the reader side with Gordie because the reader never gets to understand what the others think and feel, but I think this story did a good job of being fair to all of the characters. Lastly, I feel that the two stories that Gordie tells are an important aspect of the story. It shows Gordie's passion for writing and also shows how the other boys look up to him.
Characterization
I feel that King used both direct and indirect characterization to help the reader get a feel for the characters and their lives. King starts off the story by directly telling the reader of how Teddy got to be the way he was. "Teddy's dad took Teddy over to the big woodstove at the back of the kitchen and shoved the side of Teddy's head down against one of the cast-iron burner plates." (pg. 296) There are also direct lines such as, "He was the dumbest guy we hung around with, I guess, and he was crazy." King has to use direct characterization in the beginning of this story because it is a short story and he has to establish who these kids are and why they act the way they do early in the story for the reader to understand the rest of it. King also uses indirect characterization through the boys' language. From the way they talk, the reader can see how they have been raised and what kinds of things they value. Teddy stands up for his Father by bad-mouthing a man who is calling his father a "looney." This shows that even though his father abused him a countless amount of times, the values of a strong, close family in a small town are still present. (pg. 348)
Setting
This story takes place in 1960 in Castle Rock, Maine. This time period is very important because 1960 was in the middle of things like the Vietnam war. Technology wasn't a key to the world that they were living in. They still relied on radios for getting news. Gordie speaks of how they "all heard about it on the radio." ( Ray Brower's death ) (pg. 299) Also, this story is in the small town of Castle Rock. These were the times when children still played outside instead of playing Xbox. This combination of small town and 1960's gave the boys the ability to camp out without much worry from their parents.
Theme
I think the theme of this story could be represented by the lines on the top of some of the pages of this story, "Fall From Innocence." It is definitely a "coming of age" story. The most important part of the story is not the finding of Brower's body, it is the journey the young boy's take to get to "The Body." It shows how the young boys grow up throughout the story. They take responsibility for themselves and develop into young men by standing up for themselves in two instances. They stood up to Milo Pressman at the Dump and didn't let him get away with sticking his dog on Gordie or bad-mouthing Teddy's father. Then, when they met the older boys' "gang" (including Chris' and Vern's brother), they stood up to them too and scared them off. (It probably helped that Chris had a gun.) "Now you guys get into your cars and bomb on back to Castle Rock. After that I don't care. But you ain't getting him." (pg. 415)
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