"Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home."
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The Stand by Stephen King is one of my top 5 all time favorite books. The plot is ok, but the character development and the world Mr. King paints for the reader is no less vivid than had the reader actually known the character or seen the places described. The way King relates the characters to the reader is through the way the characters think, speak, and act. The above quote is from sociology major, Glen Bateman, who is discussing his view of human nature.
Glen is the type of guy you’d like to run into at a bar after he’s had a few. He shows a high level of intelligence but not an overbearing elitist “I’m going to hold my brilliance over your head” type of intelligence. It’s more of a let’s have a couple beers, watch the football game, and argue the validity of .999999999 = 1 (If you’re not familiar with this “trick” ask Mr. Reys). This is just one example of the intricate ways Mr. King employs that helps develop vivid and lifelike characters. Read the book and I can almost guarantee that you will find yourself drawn into the decimated world that Mr. King populates through the stories of these robustly depicted individuals.
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