Point of View

“The Manchurian Candidate” is narrated by an omniscient third person voice, allowing the reader to see, hear, and know things not known by the characters. For this type of book, third person narration is necessary so the reader understands the background of the psychological experiments, even though Raymond does not. It is this tension between the reader's knowledge and Raymond's ignorance that makes the work so poignant. Meanwhile the reader's inability to understand Eleanor's true thoughts or feelings on the events of the novel makes her character more complex, as the reader is initially given information that constructs an evil, conniving view of her, but little by little comes to understand how she feels about these events, and that she numbs herself to the pain.

Setting

The action of the novel and the associated flashbacks take place all over the world, though primarily in United...