The Vision
Essay by review • August 26, 2010 • Essay • 911 Words (4 Pages) • 1,922 Views
The Vision
Most people are skeptical about psychics and psychic
powers. In the book The Vision by Dean Koontz, there
arises a real convincing psychic Mary, who has visions of
murders that are yet to happen. But, a new twist to the story
causes Mary to see a different kind of vision. Murders more
gruesome than ever. More difficult to see. Harder to pursue.
All these factors cause the reader, and possibly Mary to
wonder who are the ones who really care for her. Can the
murderer possibly be someone she loves? Or maybe a
haunting truth about the past. The story takes place in
various locations of modern day California. Some of the
story takes place in Los Angeles, but the most momentous
part of the story takes place in a little town called King's
Point. The town is on the Pacific Coast Highway, and
expensive houses dot the shoreline. Pertaining to the visions,
Dean Koontz vividly describes the scene of each of them, as
they take place. For example, he takes the reader to one of
the scenes of a murder. A small beauty shop in Santa Ana,
California. He forces the reader to picture the various
aspects of a normal beauty shop, such as, the exterior. The
neon lights, the palm trees, the jade-plant hedges, and the
money-scented air. He informs the reader of the scent of the
shampoo, cream rinse, cologne, and perspiration. He tells
how the floor was covered in hair, and the purple color of
the walls, and the plush purple carpet. He describes the
sound of the hair dryer and the gunshot in which the
murderer shot the cashier. As one can see, the author
thoroughly describes the setting. The main character is of
course, the psychic, Mary Bergen. She is the author of a
syndicated newspaper column about psychic phenomena,
and the one who pursues the visions in which the murderer
creates. The true identity of the murderer is not clear until the
end of the book. Max Bergen, Mary's husband, and Alan
Tanner, Mary's brother, each try to help Mary pursue her
visions to catch the killer, and to free Mary's life of the
horrible stress that encompasses her. But Max and Alan
don't get along very well. Alan feels that Mary could have
picked a better man to marry, because he believes that all
Max is after is Mary's money, and that Max doesn't really
realize how fragile she is. Max knows how Alan feels, but
obviously he disagrees. Max is pretty a strong man, six
inches taller, and forty pounds heavier than Alan. Although
Max had promised Mary that he would never physically fight
another person, he feels a strong need to fight Alan, but
knows that won't stop him from being so arrogant. Alan on
the other hand, can easily persuade people with his sweet
voice, and pleasing appearance. There is also Dr. Cauvel,
Mary's psychiatrist, and Lou Pasternak, one of Mary's old
friends. Cauvel desperately tries to link Mary's visions to the
past. Pasternak, an alcoholic journalist, helps Mary and Max
try to find the killer, and stop him. Mary Bergen, the
well-known psychic, has unfortunate visions of murderers
killing their victims. One day, a terrible vision appears with
no warning. And from then on, these visions are even more
macabre than her usual visions, and they always prevent
Mary from seeing the killer's face. This puzzles Mary, so she
goes to her psychiatrist Dr. Cauvel, to seek some answers.
He tries
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