Preview

Analysis of Stephen King

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
725 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis of Stephen King
Stephen King: On Writing
Stephen King is a man of many talents and personalities; not only is he able to scare his readers immensely, he is also able to make them laugh. I chose a passage from Stephen King's On Writing for this assignment; the passage stuck in my mind for a long time after I finished the book. His writing style is unique compared to the other autobiographies I have read over the years. Everything that a person writes has a meaning or purpose whether it's a letter or an essay and voice, tone, and style play a very important part in how the reader views the piece of writing. King manipulates the rules of writing in order to emphasize the meaning of the passage, which is to describe an early childhood experience, so the reader will come away from it with a better understanding of the man behind the book.
It is obvious that King is not writing an academic piece of work, although this is a memoir about his life, which also includes instruction about writing. His style is extremely informal and it shows in the voice of his work. His use of first person throughout the piece, as well as his use of diction makes it seem as if he is sitting in front of you, on the couch, telling his life story. His style of writing makes the reader feel as if they have witnessed the events firsthand. You can almost visualize and feel what he went through when he wrote, "After having a two-hundred-pound babysitter". The hyphenation of the words two hundred pound place emphasis on her size and brings it to the readers' attention that this is a huge woman. King chose his words carefully in order to make the greatest impact on his readers.
The tone seems to be a mix of reminiscent, carefree, exasperated, and somewhat horrified. He is reliving a part of his past that wasn't particularly pleasant. You can tell that his family had moved frequently by his choice of words, "…during our Wisconsin period", stress placed on the word period. "…a stream of babysitters" is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    In this paper, I will discuss the article Reading to Write by Stephen King. I will examine the ideas he presents by citing the examples he uses. Additionally, I will give my own thoughts on his points and provide my own ideas of these topics. Lastly I will explain how I feel his logic not only effectively applies to the topic he is discussing, but how it is applicable to any chosen field a person may attempt to become successful in.…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The protagonist in the story, Stephen is a very dynamic character, as he learns much from his father and Leka while working in the pulp woods. In the beginning of the story, Stephen is unsure about who he wants to be. He tries to be like his father, endlessly felling trees, but is unable to leave his "childish" ideals and values, such as his "fascination with tales of far places." He learns to try and follow his own ideas and beliefs from Leka, who is different from the other men, but in the end decides to become like his father after seeing how he would be viewed in society, and by his father- "Them Wops and Bohunks and Polacks has got funny ideas. They ain't our kinda people. You gotta watch them."…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But when the teacher allowed the students to read something they had written themselves, Myers relaxed. He began writing poems which were made up only of words he could pronounce. Along with the many things he was discovering about himself, Myers was also learning how to survive. One day he had the courage to break up a fight between three gang members and a kid who had just moved into the neighborhood. He became a marked man. For example, once, he was sitting in the tree reading when some gang members spotted him and surrounded the tree. Myers jumped to the ground, and made a mad dash for his building. He escaped, but he never forgot the incident. Later he enlisted in the army, went through a turbulent creative struggle, but kept writing.He hasn't stopped writing since. Myers explains his feeling for the young adult novel, "The special place of the young adult novel should be in its ability to address the needs of the reader to understand his or her relationships with the world, with each other, and with adults… It is this language of values which I hope to bring to my books… I want to bring values to those who have not been valued, and I want to etch those values in terms of the ideal. Young people need ideals which identify them, and their…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are instances when imaginary stories are more powerful than those that actually happened. The fictional reality present in O'Brien's The Things They Carried adds more realism to his writing than any amount of actual details every could. Even though the stories recounted in the book didn't physically happen, they still hold as true as any actual war story. Furthermore, many of the characters and experiences found in these stories have been created from composites of real people and places. Essentially, the stories are first-hand accounts of things that never happened. Tim O'Brien uses this fictional world to negate death, to emphasize meaningful events and character traits, and to enrich the stories with feelings as oppose to factual details.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Books are uniquely portable magic,” Stephen King wrote in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. I quite agree with this view. In retrospect, the genres of books which I read gradually varied as of aged. Additionally, those books which I have read, broadened my horizon and improved my comprehension ability to some degree.…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Teen Dystopia: Should we be worried about what Generation Z is reading?, the author, Sophie Boyer debates whether The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is a suitable book for our generation to read. Through the discussion of both sides of the story, in the end, the author concludes that The Hunger Games is a “well-constructed allegory that reflects a more realistic portrayal of our world” and “reminds the reader to never take anything for granted.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Can a person die of happiness? That’s what seems to happen in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”. Mrs. Mallard received the horrible news of her husband’s passing due to a train accident. However, as we read further into the story we realized that Mrs. Mallard is not that upset with her newfound freedom. But the narrative comes to a climax when Mrs. Mallard dies upon discovering that her husband is actually alive. Doctors pronounce the cause of death - “joy that kills”. It is debatable if someone could die from hearing good news. Mrs. Mallard believed that her husband died and she finally could be free to live her life, but was rudely awakened by seeing him alive. Her imaginative freedom was taken away from her and that’s what her heart couldn’t take. It was not the joy that killed Mrs. Mallard but rather discovering that her husband is alive and her freedom would be lost again, thus causing her death.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stephen Kings Children of the Corn is a short story about a couple (Burt and Vicky) who explores a strange town, but ends up face to face with a ironic twist when they attempt to flee from children who intentions are not quite normal. The plot of this story takes on the profound message of role switching truths, and likewise correlations of the spiritual beliefs that our society has obtained. Through the literary devices of characters and allusion Stephen King takes symbolic representation on the misuse of religion in today's modern culture.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Popular culture is ever changing phenomenon, and it is been changing to worse. Seeing some of the things on television or in a movie or on the internet nowadays really makes you question the intelligence of humans as species. “why we crave horror movies” by Stephen King, makes us to think and get an idea of why we love to watch horror movie. People like scary movies because they make them feel good. Even though people scream, shout or even cry during some scary movies they end up feeling better about themselves because of realizing that some people suffer more than them even if those people were imaginary.The subconsciousness mind can't tell the difference between true and imaginary experience, that's why movies can change our moods to a great extent even though we are aware that they are not real. Personally, I like horror movies, but still i will close my eyes in some horror scenes. Those scenes will freaks me out, leaving me unsettled for days, the images a record player in my mind. But still i watch just to get thrilled. The thesis in the…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Narrative Rough Draft

    • 1791 Words
    • 8 Pages

    I never used to write. In fact, I didn’t much like it. Little did I know that writing would become obsolete and a physiological requirement for the well being of my life. From an early age on all I did was read. I grew up in an isolated environment where books were my escape, and escape was necessary from the hardships of home. I remember being a young seven-year-old boy wearing a pillowcase around my neck fastened with a pen. I was eating animal crackers at the time, and my step dad was calling out for me. I stood up from my crouched position and raised my hand as I learned from pre-school, and said, “ I’m here daddy.” At that moment my step father grabbed me by the cape harshly compressing my trachea purposefully, shaking me back and forth with his hands around my neck as I began to choke on the appetizing cracker animal crumbs within the back of my throat. I didn’t understand at the time what was really going on. My mother came out of the room and my dad acted as if nothing happened and told me to…

    • 1791 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    On Writing by Stephen King provided helpful literary insight on writing technique, tips, and writing in general. One recurring theme that King presented throughout the novel is that in order to be a successful writer, you must consistently read and write. King states, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut” (King 145). Over my years of education, I have known this to be true. Reading has always been a passion of mine, and I began to notice recently how much my writing has improved as a result of constantly reading. Reading not only expands my vocabulary, but allows me to unconsciously think back to something I have read and possibly use that phrase or idea in my writing. As King explains, “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad ones have more to teach than the good…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “They're all gonna laugh at you” Hello my name is Stephen Edwin King, I was born in Portland, Maine 1947 September 21. My parents married in 1939 July 23, and I have an older brother, David. My parents divorced when I was just a toddler. I spent a few years of my life going between Indiana and Connecticut until I started living with my mom. I went to Lisbon falls high school, and the to the university of Maine.…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a book that should be taught in a high school student’s education because of the warnings and important messages it displays. In my opinion, the most important message in the book has to do with the misuse of technology. Bradbury even says himself that technology can be useful in some ways, but that it can’t and shouldn’t replace human connection and interaction. He uses the example of TV’s on all four walls to get his point across that people are paying more attention to TV, rather than actual people speaking to them. This repeatedly happens with Mildred throughout the book and it helps flip a switch in Montag’s head. He finally realizes that’s not how human interaction is supposed to work. It propels…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, has caused me to have multiple reactions, to the story, characters, and themes. They have made me feel mad, sad, upset, happy, but most of all surprised; throughout the recent readings every night more gets added to the story and more just surprises me. What completely shocked/surprised me was when Liesel fought back against Ludwig Schmeikl and what followed afterwards. However, there has been far more things than just that, that have surprised me. A couple include Liesel receiving two books for christmas, Hans Junior leaving, and how Rudy has reacted to Liesel throughout the entire passage,…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Touch with Fire

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In ‘Welfare baby’ albury starts off by describing the baby as ‘defenseless’, which shows how he is unable to help or defend himself. This may give the reader a sad feeling toward the character. In lines three and four, “ Mother’s only Sixteen Doesn’t want him” shows how the baby is unwanted and disowned by the one person that should love and care for him. The poet arouses sympathy for the infant by presenting him as an innocent being and the mother as an unfit parent. In Addition to her being an unfit parent is the fact that she is unaware of the father of the child. That is, “ besides she’s not sure, was it Harold or Jim?” the poet uses a rhetorical question so depict the sympathetic theme in this poem. The poets use of repetition of the line “Defenseless he lay there” which can be seen in lines two, ten, and fourteen show how he’s is trying to stress the fact that the baby was unable to help himself. Each time the reader sees this they may overcome a feeling of pity for the character. Coming to the end of the poem Albury states that “ She reached out to hold him but couldn’t” which can arouse compassion for the character due to the mother, who is referred to as she, hesitates to hold her son. The use of adjectives “unloved & nameless” describes to the reader what state the child was in, these sad terms are sure to lead him/her into a fellow feeling.…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays