Narrator and point of view

The story “The Boogeyman” by Stephen King is told from the point of view of a third-person narrator. The point of view switches to the first-person when Lester Billings recounts the past events in his dialogue with Dr Harper, which makes up the majority of the story.

At the beginning, the third-person narrator appears to have access to Dr Harper’s thoughts, as we see Lester Billings through his eyes: “Dr Harper said nothing. He thought that Billings looked haggard and old. His hair was thinning, his complexion sallow. His eyes held all the miserable secrets of whisky.” (p. 1, ll. 23-24). At the end, when Lester leaves the doctor’s office, the perspective shifts, and the third-person narrator assumes Lester’s point of view when he...