Point of View

Rice deploys a number of point of view strategies throughout the novel, each of which is integral to the carrying out of its moral and philosophical inquiries. Although the majority of the novel is written from the perspective of a third-person narrator with shifting, limited omniscience (i.e. the narrator follows different characters with limited perspectives at different times), other chapters are told in first-person.

One of the more significant first-person speakers in Lasher is Oncle Julien, who relays a long story about his own personal history to Michael as part of an effort to educate him on how to defeat the evil demon tormenting the family. During this extended personal history, Julien confesses to several acts of rape, murder, pedophilia, and incest, but does not seem particularly bothered by them. Indeed, because the Mayfairs have been presented as protagonists, and because they so venerate...