Category: Stephen King

Stephen King is a mystery novelist. ‘Monsters and ghosts are real, they live inside us, and sometimes they win” ( King, 2015). King struggled with alcohol, drug abuse and smoking excessively, but he overcame those hindering barriers. He has a family that helped him every step of the way, but at a young age, tragic events took place in his life. These events didn’t stop him but formed him into the famous novelist he is in today’s world.

Stephen King once said, ‘Fiction is the truth inside the lie'(King, 2010). Stephen King is a famous novelist of Horror. He is known for some of his best-sellers like Pet Sematary, IT, and The Shining. Some of those have even been converted into movies. He is a dark cryptic writer. Even though he is not liked by all, for the dark novels he perseveres anyway. Stephen King is known for his dark writing, but knowing his childhood, writing career, and accomplishments are what makes him the kind of author we know today.

Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. His mother Nellie Ruth King and his father Donald Edwin King separated at a young age in King’s life. After the separation King and his older brother lived with their mom, she moved to various places Wisconsin, India, and even Connecticut. They did that because Nellie was a single mother raising two boys, and she was under financial pressure. In one of these various places they lived King witnessed a friend of his got run over by a train, but when asked about it, he did not remember the incident. Some believe this event in young King’s life is what inspired his dark writing. King graduated from Lisbon High School in 1962 with a scholarship to the University of Maine. Eight years later in 1970, King graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

King and his brother decided to write and publish their newspaper this is the beginning of King’s writing career. King published his first novel in 1974, Carrie. A novel about a girl who gets abused by her mom, and school peers. She discovered that she had powers, and she ends up killing her peers at a dance, and her mom after her mom stabbed her. Carrie in 1976 became a film and it was a hit, it got nominated for the 49th Academy Awards. Some have even considered it to be, ‘ one of the greatest horror films.’ King’s view on horror is, ‘ We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones’ (King, 2011). The Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Different Seasons, and several more novels have been considered King’s best sellers. King has even been nominated and has won many awards for his books.

King has beyond 54 novels, 200 short stories, and he has written six non-fiction books under the name Richard Bachman. He has been nominated for multiple awards like Hugo Award, Baron Award, and even the Locus award this year. King has so much success, but he did struggle to overcome some obstacles. King was addicted to alcohol, smoking, and drugs, he could not have overcome these addictions without the help of his wife Tabitha King. King’s whole family helps him through the tough patches in his life: his sons Joe Hill, and Owen King, his daughter Naom King. King’s writing was greatly influenced by the drugs, with his books having at least one person struggling with drugs. He also believed that if he gave up these addictions he could not continue writing, this was not true he continued writing and inspiring people. King has inspired things like Scary Movie, Netflix’s hit serious Stranger Things, and even some episodes of Friends.

Stephen King, ‘ The Master of Horror’ has revolutionized and rejuvenated the genre of Horror, in stories and films. King continues to write his dark novels, ‘When asked ‘How do you write?’ I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time”(King, 2014). His childhood, writing career, and successes all make him the King we know today. Stephen King has overcome many adversities. King remains an artist of Terror.

“Sometimes, dead is better.” (King, XV) The novel intersects between both life and death which can be crossed but brings fatal consequences. King presents death in a horrifying matter and implies that if grief is avoided it can be worse. Death must be accepted because if we fail to cope with death then we will not be able to function with the present. In the novel, Pet Sematary, the events reflect off Stephen King’s personal experiences but distorts these experiences using horrific and suspenseful imagery. King thrills the audience by making it seem as if every page is the end.

Born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine, Stephen Edwin King was raised mainly by his mother due to the separation of his father and mother. Stephen King’s mother, Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King, was left to support Stephen and her older child, David King. Ruth King took several low-income jobs in order to maintain the well-being of her family. Stephen’s father, Donald Edwin King, left a box of fantasy horror fiction books in which young Stephen found and entertained himself by reading all the books. As a result, he found his strong point in writing and began writing at the age of seven. “Writing has always been it for me,” King declared (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 4). When King was twelve, he submitted short fiction stories to magazines and even though he did not achieve selling his stories, he won first prize in an essay competition sponsored by a scholastic magazine. At the age of 18, King published his first story in a magazine named Comic Reviews (Encyclopedia of World Biography,4). King first attended grammar school then graduated from Lisbon Falls High School in 1966.

King pursued a bachelor’s degree at the University of Maine at Orono and participated in many events. His sophomore year, he began to write the weekly column for the school newspaper known as THE MAINE CAMPUS. King was active in student politics in which he became a member of the Student Senate and worked at the Folger library as a student. In addition, the Orono campus was holding an anti-war movement which King attended to support the opinion of the Vietnam War being unconstitutional. In 1970, he graduated from the University of Maine at Orono with a Bachelors of Arts degree in English. In 1971, he married a woman named Tabitha Spruce who attended the same university as well. After their marriage, King had a difficult time to find a placement as a teacher immediately, in order to maintain themselves, they lived off his incomes as a laborer in an industrial industry, his sales of short stories to men’s magazine, and both her savings and student loans. An opportunity arose in late 1971, he acquired a job at Hampden Academy, teaching high school English classes and still continued to write short stories. However, King’s editor, Bill Thompson from Doubleday & Co. stated that they had a major paperback issue which would result in King writing full-time and to leave his teaching job. Having access to writing full-time allowed King to write his first novel, Carrie which became a huge success and launched his career into becoming one of best writers of horror stories.

Stephen King’s novels consists of everyday situations which pays a significant amount of attention on the details of the story’s setting, the emotional feelings that the characters experience, and emphasizes modern problems. One of his greatest novels, Pet Sematary, was inspired by the events in his own life. He was invited to be a professor at the college he previously attended, University of Maine. King accepted the invitation and moved his family to a rural house in Orrington, Maine. Both King and his wife loved their new house but despised the busy road that passed their home. The Pet Sematary was inspired by real life events in King’s life such as the murderous road, a dead cat, a child-made pet cemetery in the woods that actually read ‘Pet Sematary.’

Stephen King believes that the novel Pet Sematary is one of the most frightening books that he has ever written. In fact, he thought he finally went too far. The novel involves the death of the character Gage Creed which was stirred by the near-death of his own son. King was able to stop his son on time but the horrifying thought of ‘what-if’ wouldn’t escape his mind. “What if he didn’t stop his son on time?” (Jackson, 7). This thought resulted in a gruesome book, disturbing enough to refrain King from publishing the book and remained in an empty drawer waiting to be read. However, the bestseller did not get its title by hiding in a drawer. Stephen terminated his relationship with his publishing company, Doubleday, but he owed a final novel before all accounts could be concluded. He only had one option in consideration which was the extraordinary novel, Pet Sematary. Not even King himself likes the novel, he publicly states, “If I had my way about it, I still would not have published Pet Sematary. I don’t like it. It’s a terrible book—not in terms of the writing, but it just spirals down into darkness. It seems to be saying that nothing works and nothing is worth it, and I don’t really believe that.” (Jackson, 16).

“Don’t go beyond, no matter how much you feel you need to, Doctor. The barrier was not made to be broken. Remember this: there is more power here than you know. It is old and always restless. Remember.” (King, 73). This quote is significant in the novel because these haunting words were given by the spirit of Victor Pascow, who died at Louis’ office but came back to life, to warn Louis Creed about how dangerous the cemetery was. The words of Victor’s spirit foreshadows the upcoming events and leaves the audience at the edge of their seat because the spirit has information that Louis Creed will not discover until much later. Despite the spirit’s warnings, Louis decided to ignore the words of Victor’s spirits. In the novel, the Creed’s family cat, Winston Churchill or Church, was killed in the deadly road that passed their house but didn’t want to break the devastating news to his daughter, Ellie. Jud Crandall helps Louis bring the Church back to life by burying the cat at the Pet Sematary. Crandall the reveals that it is an Indian burial ground which will revive Ellie’s beloved cat. The following day, Church returns to the household, but he wasn’t quite the same as he was before. Although he wasn’t the same, Louis ignores it and decides to never tell his family. Unfortunately, the death of the family cat wasn’t the only death that occurred in the family. As the Creeds were having a family outdoor picnic, Gage wandered off without anyone noticing, once they came to the realization that their son was gone, it was too late. Gage went to the road and was killed by a speeding truck. Devastated by the loss of his son, Louis buried his son at the Pet Sematary not realizing the fatal consequences that he will face. As Louis arrived at the Crandall’s house after burying Gage, he could not believe what he saw. Two dead bodies on the floor. Louis’ wife, Rachel, and Jud Crandall, both murdered by his demonic son. Louis has no choice but to kill him. This event is significant because Louis could have avoided all these conflicts if he would’ve listened to the spirit of Victor Pascow, however, he could not handle the grief and the guilt that built up inside.

“What you buy is what you own, and sooner or later what you own will come back to you.” Louis Creed faced many conflicts and learned the hard way that everything you do; you have to pay a price and soon enough you will have to face the consequences. Louis suffered a tremendous loss and as any father would do, he revived him knowing the consequences that came with it. Throughout the novel, Louis hid the tragic events in order to save face which only made matters worse. It caused the death of his beloved wife and friendly neighbor. This quote not only speaks about Louis but speaks about society, we all suffer losses, but we have to accept death because as we constantly focus on the past, we will not be able to focus on the present. Jud Crandall had to accept the death of his wife and tried to tell Louis that he should also accept the death of his son, but his avoidance of grief got the best of him which made matters worse.

Not learning from his lesson, Louis buried his wife in the burial ground where his evil-spirited son revived. Instead of protecting and living for his daughter, he went the selfish route and decided to bring back his caring wife. His emotions were hectic and having to live with the guilt of three deaths can be exhausting but Stephen King gave a message in the novel, implying that death will always come and go, we must be learn how to accept it because if we don’t, we will only affect our loved ones.

Stephen King with more than 50 published novels, created one of the most frightening books he has ever completed. Although he loves to terrify people with his writing, especially after he made the audience love the characters, he believes that he crossed the line with this book. He used his personal experiences to create this horrifying novel which was originally not supposed to be published since it was based on the near-death of his son and the novel implied that nothing gets better from there unless death is accepted. Pet Sematary can relate to many grieving people because they cannot accept reality which affects everyone around them. This idea of the book makes King constantly question Jud Crandall’s horrid words, “Sometimes, dead is better,” perhaps that was grief’s last stage, we finally get tired of crying and feeling that pain deep inside. Avoiding grief can only cause much more pain and it is not as simple as hiding it in a drawer, waiting for a day to confront it.

Works Cited

1. “Pet Sematary by Stephen King.” Topics, Sample Papers & Articles Online for Free, 30 Sept. 2016, studymoose.com/pet-sematary-by-stephen-king-essay.
2. “10 Facts About Stephen King’s Pet Sematary.” Mental Floss, 7 Mar. 2019, mentalfloss.com/article/575903/pet-sematary-stephen-king-book.
3. Unknown. “Spark Notes.” Spark Notes, 1 Jan. 1970, thisismysparknotesproject.blogspot.com/.
4. “Stephen King Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/King-Stephen.html.
5. StephenKing.com – About the Author, www.stephenking.com/the_author.html.
6. King, Stephen. Pet Sematary: a Novel. Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2019.

Stephen King is a popular horror fiction author. Most of his novels fall into the category of horror fiction. His works are part of the modern era. In Pet Semetary, Stephen King develops the idea of man playing God and the repercussions of defying nature.

Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine. He is the son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. Growing up, his father taught him how to fish and hunt. This would become one of King’s most pleasurable activities. He attended Durham elementary school, followed by Lisbon Falls High School where he fell in love with writing. During this time, his parents divorced. This made a complicated transition for his brother and him, who would have to transition from Indiana and Connecticut. He would then settle in with his mother back in Maine.

After he graduated, he decided to stay local and attended The University of Maine at Orono. There, he would focus on his English studies. He starts writing for the school’s newspaper and he loves it. King would also serve in the with the student government in his time at The University of Maine. This is where he would publish his first story and it would be shown in Startling Mystery Stories. This would only be the start of what is considered to be one of the most exciting horror fiction authors to ever be.

King’s career doesn’t get off to the best start. King continued to write his stories while at a local laundromat until 1971. In 1971, he would get hired to be an English teacher at Hampden Academy. During the same year, he would go out to marry his wife Tabitha Spruce. In 1973, Stephen King wrote his first hit novel Carrie. The novel really dives deep into the dark side of his imagination. The story documented a teen who wanted to get back at her classmates. At this point, the two most influential women in his life were Tabitha King and Carrie White. Tabitha loaned Stephen her typewriter so that we could stop writing as much and to hopefully get a higher paying job than the school teacher gig. Carrie would later on be adapted to the big screen. He had a knack for coming up with most intimidating and spine-chilling antagonists in all of horror fiction such as, Pennywise the Clown in the hit novel IT. King was also self-conscious about publishing many books under the same name. He would write under the alias “Richard Bachman”. “King published several books as Richard Bachman. Four early novels — Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981) and The Running Man (1982) — were published under the moniker because of King’s concern that the public wouldn’t accept more than one book from an author within a year”(biography.com). Carrie would end up flying off the shelves as it would end up selling up to $400,000. Stephen King would go on to publish 61 novels with seven of them under the name of Richard Bachman. The masterful mind behind the most macabre and horrific characters is one of the most influential writers of the modern era. There is no doubt that he is one of the most prized authors of all time.

Spanning through King’s long and ever-consistent career. He has won two prestigious awards for his novels. King won the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2003 for his extraordinary work in writing. He wrote over 50 books and all of them ended up being worldwide best sellers. He also won the National Medal of Arts in 2015 from Barack Obama for his outstanding work in literature.

King is currently still writing today. His most recent novel The Institution has received great reviews. Nowadays King and his wife spend time writing together. “He and his novelist wife divide their time between Maine and Florida”(biography.com) King has three kids who are novelists of their own and use that to bond with each other. King is also an avid music fan, and loves to play guitar. “He even sometimes plays guitar and sings in a band called Rock Bottom Remainders with fellow literary starts like Dave Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, amd Amy Tan(biography.com).

“In Western literature the literary cultivation of fear and curiosity for its own sake began to emerge in the 18th-century pre-romantic era with the gothic novel”(britannica.com). The art of horror literature started with the humble gothic novel and then evolved into one of the most popular genres. Horace Walpole, who wrote Castle of Otranto , laid the foundation of horror literature. Edgar Allen Poe is another writer who listen the magnitude of the horror genre to another level.

Transitioning into the modernization of the horror novel, “Ambrose Bierce published “Can Such Things Be?” in 1893. The collection of ghost stories followed his gritty war stories, bringing ghosts into modernity(bookstellyouwhy.com). This goes to show how the shift into paranormal activity headlines the change into modern horror literature. This gave the modern reader a whole new meaning of fear and anxiety. The next step would be the adaptation to the horror film and not much after that.

After the major birth of horror, the creation of fictional characters come into play. “Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley introduced pseudoscience into the genre in her famous novel Frankenstein (1818), about the creation of a monster that ultimately destroys its creator”(britannica.com). The addition of monsters and eerie atmospheres set the tone for time to come. The genre started to introduce haunted houses and symbols that gave readers a scare. Gothic influence pushed through the 1800’s with novels such as The House by the Churchyard and Green Tea. Dracula by Bram Stoker introduced the blood sucking count. The genre would turn its modern head and continue to develop darker scenarios and outlooks to shock and keep readers on the edge of their seats.

In Pet Semetary, Stephen King develops the idea of man playing God and the repercussions of defying nature. The story shows the ancient burial ground that the ancient civilization buried their pets in, so that they would come back to life. This follows the idea of man playing God and the fact that no good can come from it. “Don’t go beyond, no matter how much you feel you need to, Doctor. The barrier was not made to be broken(Pet Semetary). This quote justifies that the barrier between God and man was never intended to be broken. Gage dies on thanksgiving by a truck running him over. Louis proceeds to bury him in the same place Church the cat was buried. Gage comes back to life and stabs Jud immediately The Creed family crossed the line between God and man and felt the after math severely..

The next theme of the story is the repercussion of defying nature. “Sometimes, dead is better”(Pet Semetary). The quote supports the theme because the aftermath of the burial of the son comes back to haunt the Creed family. The son comes back to life and is not even a fraction of his old self. He goes on a mission to destroy his whole family and to get them into the burial ground. The story goes to show the audience the importance in the balance of nature and man. Man has no business dealing with the laws of nature. Louis finds himself battling Church and Gage at the end of the story as they both are trying to kill him and bury him in the cemetery. Louis ends up killing the reincarnated family members and ends up with a dead wife. The boom ends with Louis playing a card game awaiting the arrival of his animated wife.

Therefore, Stephen King’s Pet Semetary gives readers an idea of the dark side of literature. It shows the consequences of going against nature and the evils that the underworld would have. It brings fantasy to the real world and the horrors of reincarnation and defying the barriers of God and nature.