The Vision Essay, Research Paper

The Vision by Dean Koontz 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 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 tree, 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 air, 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, 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 of 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 disagrees. Max is pretty a strong

man, six inches taller, and forty pounds heavier then 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 vision 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 to delve into her past and unveil

some truths. She was abused as a child by one of her

neighbors, who supposedly killed all of her brother Alan’s

pets. And her father died when she was really young. Mary

doesn’t clearly recall any of the abuse she experienced. All

she can really remember is the flapping of a lot of wings,

those of like a bird. She often has visions of just the wings,

and it is an enigma which severely frightens Mary. All she

knows, is the wings relate to her abuse. Considering that

Mary has blocked this part of her past out, Cauvel believes

that her abuse is what caused her to start having these

visions. That same day, a vision comes to her. As she tries to

pursue the vision and see the killers face, hundreds of glass

dogs that the Doctor had collected, flew off the shelves, and

at Mary. Scared and confused, Mary later looks for comfort

in Max. He of course comforts her, and tries to help solve

the mystery. He takes her to King’s Point where the next

murder is to take place and to meet with Lou, who helps

them by having a seance to answer some of Mary’s

questions. A Ouji board assists in answering these questions.

But, there are a few questions asked by the reader, such as:

Is the killer actually someone who is close to Mary? The

Vision by Dean Koontz, is a very exiting book that will most

definitely keep one turning the pages. It has a lot of

suspense, and most of all, a lot of mystery. The author does

a good a job in letting the reader know what is going on at

all times. He does so in such an interesting manner, which

keeps one begging for more. The book itself has a very

attractive cover which also gets one’s attention. This book is

recommended to almost anyone, but mostly to those who

like murder mysteries. In reading this book, one will find that

the main character Mary goes through many perils but never

seems to give up. She persists with her visions until she feels

that justice has been served. Even though she has some

people against her, mainly the skeptics, she also has people

who love her helping. This just shows that even though one

might feel like the world is against them, they actually have

friends who love them enough to help them solve all their

problems. It just takes persistence and patience.

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