Comparing Stephen King's Life, Times, And Works

The “King” of Horror:
Stephen King’s Life, Times, and Works

Abstract:
This essay is about the life and times of Stephen King and the influences he has had in society. It discusses his childhood and the impact it had in his writing. Examining several scholarly articles helped distinguish King’s unique writing style and themes he includes in his works. This composition ends with the analysis of King’s novel Misery and the uncommon aspects seen throughout his book.

Novels create and escape from the real world. Stephen believed this greatly having grown up without many friends King turned to reading many books. Growing up in a time of wars, King wrote many horror novels, creating something worse than the horror of reality for people to enjoy. Many critics have noticed his unique way of including horror in almost all of his novels. King has been recognized as one of the best horror writers becoming widely known worldwide.

1. Stephen King’s Life, Times, and Influences
Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. At
the age of two, King's father left the family without a word, leaving only his mother to raise him and his brother. King has a bachelor’s degree in English and still lives in Maine with his wife and children. Novels, writers, and wars have influenced King's writing to become what it is today.
King has had a love for reading and writing science and horror stories since he was young. At the age of seven, King found his "forte" after "discovering a box of horror and science fiction books in his aunts house" ("Stephen King"). As a child, King "often felt different and unhappy" and used writing as a diversion ("Stephen King"). After finding his talent, "King began submitting short fiction to magazines at twelve, and published his first story at eighteen" ("Stephen King"). Throughout high school and college King published his own newspaper and wrote stories for magazine columns (“Stephen King”). With his love for writing horror fiction, King "pursued a bachelor of arts degree in English at the University of Maine at Orono" ("Stephen King"). Even at the age of sixty-five, "King writes daily, exempting only Christmas, the Fourth of July, and his birthday" ("Stephen King"). "He devotes his afternoon hours to rewriting" and "produces six pages daily" ("Stephen King").
Growing up in the time of wars, King began writing about the realism of what he experienced growing up. After a "theater manager interrupted "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" to announce that the Soviet Union launched the satellite "Sputnik,"" Kings fears of "fictional horror vividly intersected with the reality of a potential holocaust" ("Stephen King"). With the horror of nuclear wars, King began writing about the reality, or what could be reality. "King believes his entire generation is beset with terrifying itself because it is the first to mature under the threat of nuclear war" ("Stephen King"). With this terrifying reality in the minds of everyone, many people looked to King's books since many Americans "made up horrors to cope with real ones" ("Stephen King"). King helped many people of his generation deal with the fear of another war by producing horrors even worse than reality.
American gothic writers and authors of previous horror novels have influenced King. Throughout Kings novels you can find parallels between his novels and early horror and science stories. "Kings novels offer variations on classic stories of fantasy and horror" ("Stephen King"). Some variations include King's Salem's Lot with Bram Stoker's Dracula and King's The Stand with J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. These “variations” offer stories with similar settings or plot lines. King has also been called the "heir to the American Gothic tradition in that he has placed his horrors in contemporary settings and has depicted the struggle of an American culture to face the horrors within it" following "the legacy of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry James, and H. P. Lovecraft" ("Stephen King"). King continues the American gothic tradition writing dark horror similar to Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville.
King has been influenced by many things throughout his life to become the writer he is now. As times are changing he continues to write best-selling novels but has slowly been branching out releasing eBooks and writing novels based on his life. Stephen King will continue to publish best-selling novels that will be sold worldwide.

2. Critic Evaluations Stephen King's first novel Carrie was published in the late 1900s becoming a success and gaining King much fame. Since his first novel, King has written more than forty horror novels and has sold more than 350 million books worldwide. With the popularity of King’s books, various literary critics have written about his unique style and influences in his writing.
Heidi Strengell examines the gothic style of Stephen King’s novels and compares them to early horror fiction novels. Strengell explains that King combines “elements of the gothic tale with other genres” to improve his fiction (221). It is believed that the gothic style is “the fall from innocence or the bargain with the Devil” which is apparent in King’s works including Needful Things and Storm of the Century (Strengell 221). Strengell analyzes the themes of King’s Bag Of Bones and The Shining with the first gothic novel The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. Both authors “believe in the power of terror to awaken and sustain interest,” ”blend genres,” ”exploit the supernatural in order to amuse,” and “expose themselves to self-parody and irony” (224-225). King and Walpole both use the ghost archetype in their writing. King explains that “of the four Gothic archetypes, the ‘Ghost is the most potent’, because it sums up all the rest and traces them to the original antagonist, the devil” (Strengell 227). Both writers “make use of dreams” within their books. King uses dreams to “warn, predict, carry the narrative forward, and even form their own sub-plots” whereas Walpole uses dreams to create strategy (Strengell 226).
Patrick McAleer suggest that King’s characters are failures who were influenced by the baby boomers of his generation. McAleer points out that many of King’s characters “are placed within positions of power and are given numerous chances to remedy their respective situations, they often fail” (1210). McAleer explains that King provided a discussion about the baby boomers of his generation and how they are “a selection of people who were positioned to radically alter their social landscape and who reportedly had the necessary means to do so, yet failed” (1210). With close examination you can see that King provides his characters with different tools that could lead them to success, which eventually end up as a failure. Alongside failure as a common theme and outcome, King’s fiction helps remind the baby boomer generation of their failures and what they are left to face in the future. With this McAleer confirms that “much of King’s writing is certainly influenced by the activity, and inactivity, of his peers” (1210-1211).
Natalie Schroeder discusses King’s Misery and the different levels of power between genders within the novel. The main character, Paul Sheldon, is kidnapped and kept prisoner in the house of his number one fan, Annie Wilkes (Schroeder 137). With Paul being injured, he has no power and is forced to do what his captor, Annie, tells him to do (Schroeder 137). Annie holds a significant amount of power and is a powerful figure in Misery. With the murder of the state trooper, “Annie wins a power struggle with a male figure of authority” (Schroeder 139). As a prisoner, Paul has little power over Annie and will be punished if not cooperating. With Annie being mentally unstable, she possesses the most power, with her victims cooperating with her, hoping they aren’t included with the thirty other people she has already murdered (Schroeder 145).
Schroeder also examines multiple metaphors and sexual symbolism, including rape, prostitution, and incest, throughout Misery.
King “discusses the strong sexual undertones in vampire fiction” comparing a vampire bite to oral rape ( 138). Schroeder acknowledges that Annie Wilkes is an oral rapist, much like a vampire. Before Paul could breath “she raped him full of her air again” (qtd. in Schroeder 138). King also extends the analogy when Annie crushes a rat to death, “unaware of what she was doing, she began to suck the rat’s blood from her fingers” (King 161). Furthermore, Annie makes Paul “her prostitute by forcing him to write a new Misery-novel” (Schroeder 139). All through Misery, Annie isn’t just Paul’s fan and lover, she also plays the role of his mother (Schroeder 139). As an ex-nurse, Annie treats Paul as her child, feeding, praising, and even punishing
him.
Known for his horror and suspense novels, King has a special way of writing to create fear in his readers. Using unique writing styles, King has been recognized as one of the best contemporary horror authors. With his talent of writing award winning horror fiction stories King has become known and loved worldwide.

3. Misery: An analysis of King’s Writing
Misery by Stephen King is a novel about a famous writer named Paul Sheldon. After finishing his draft for his latest novel, Paul takes a drive and hits a snowstorm causing him to drive off a cliff and shatter his legs. Paul is then rescued by his number-one fan, Annie Wilkes, and taken back to her home. She then tortures and forces him to write another book about Misery Chastain, her favorite character in his series, after she finds out he kills her off in his latest book. In Misery, King includes castration, dismemberment, and has a unique way of writing to demonstrate the fear and thoughts the protagonist is experiencing to create fear in the reader. King has a method of using detailed descriptions to cause fear and disgust to arise in the reader. For example, King describes the dismemberment of Paul’s ankle with much detail.
The axe came whistling down and buried itself in Paul Sheldon’s left leg just above the ankle . . . Dark-red blood splattered across her face like Indian war-paint. It splattered the wall. He heard the blade squeal against bone as she wrenched it free . . . The sheet was turning red. He saw his toes wriggling. Then he saw her raise the dripping axe again.
He tried to pull back in spite of the pain in his leg and knee and realized that his leg was moving but his foot wasn’t. All he was doing was widening the axe-slash, making it open like a mouth. He had time enough to realize his foot was now only held on his leg by the meat of his calf before the blade came down again, directly into the gash, shearing through the rest of his leg and burying itself deep in the mattress (King 205).
King also describes Paul’s terrible condition of his legs, not leaving out a single component of what happened. King writes, “The legs themselves meandered strangely up to his knees, turning outward here, jagging inward there. His left knee-a throbbing focus of pain-no longer seemed to exist at all. There was a calf, and a thigh, and then a sickening bunch in the middle that looked like a salt-dome” (35). King confirms that Paul’s legs weren’t just shattered but “they had been pulverized.” (36) Natalie Schroeder points out King’s involvement of castration and dismemberment throughout Misery. Schroeder has noted how “castration is consciously in Paul and Annie’s mind.” (Schroeder 141). While sneaking out of the room Paul was confined in, he finds Annie’s phone and imagines everything she could’ve done, including castrating her only working phone, knowing he might try to escape (King 82). Paul was also thinking of castration when Annie pulled out a butcher knife he had hidden under his bed, and feared what she might have done to him (King 202). Alongside the fear of castration, King adds in dismemberment. Annie dismembers Paul’s ankle after finding out he left the room several times without her consent and stashed a butcher knife under his bed. King describes, “The axe came whistling down and buried itself in Paul Sheldon’s left leg just above the ankle” (205). Paul believes Annie has anger management issues and it is proved after Annie dismantled Paul’s thumb because of an argument they had over the broken typewriter she bought him (King 226). King’s uncommon use of language demonstrates the protagonists thoughts and vivid imagination. Throughout Misery, King interjects events with Paul’s thoughts and memories. Paul has a vivid imagination coming up with things depending on what he hears, feels, or smells. He pressed the crook of his elbow more tightly against his eyes. From the barn he could hear spaced thudding noises. Impossible to tell what they were, of course, but in his imagination . . . he could see her pushing bales of hay out of the loft with the heel of her boot, could see them tumbling to the barn floor (King 28).
Paul also imagines detailed scenarios that might happen to Annie, such like her committing suicide, and what he would do to get out of her house. He began to believe she was dead. She was deeply unstable, and unstable people frequently took their own lives. He saw her
(“So vivid”) pulling over to the side of the road in Old Bessie, taking a .44 from under the seat, putting it in her mouth, and shooting herself (King 36).
Paul has such a vivid imagination that when Annie had left for more than two days he began to describe his growing pain, hunger, and thirst as objects in a race, calling them the “King of Pain,” “I Got the Hungries,” and “Pretty Thirsty” (King 34-36). In conclusion, King includes unique themes in his novel Misery to engage the reader in the events taking place. His detailed descriptions aim for the reader to see and feel what the protagonist is feeling making the novel more exciting to read. Knowing the thoughts of the protagonist also creates a deeper understanding of the characters and what they are experiencing. Without all the details and unique themes in Misery, it wouldn’t have been the same novel it is now.

In conclusion King has become extremely popular producing many notable works. Many critics have noticed his unique way of writing horror, achieving many awards. King has been greatly influenced by his times and childhood, which has been seen by scholars. His works include great detail creating fear in his readers. King’s book Misery successfully illustrates his use of details and his strong imagination to create a miraculous story.

Works Cited
King, Stephen. Misery. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Viking, 1987.
McAleer, Patrick. "I Have The Whole World In My Hands ... Now What?: Power, Control,
Responsibility And The Baby Boomers In Stephen King's Fiction." Journal Of Popular
Culture 44.6 (2011): 1209-1227. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Feb. 2013.
Schroeder, Natalie. "Stephen King's Misery: Freudian Sexual Symbolism And The Battle Of The
Sexes."Journal Of Popular Culture 30.2 (1996): 137-148. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 1 Feb. 2013.
"Stephen King." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Student Resources In
Context. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.
Strengell, Heidi. "The Ghost : The Gothic Melodrama In Stephen King's Fiction." European
Journal Of American Culture 24.3 (2005): 221-238. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1
Feb. 2013.