Stephen King: Master of Gothic Horror Literature

Rachel Glock
Mr.Metz
English 3
February 1, 2018
Stephen King
Horror has taken over this generation by storm. Multiple horror movies and books are coming out each month and have been setting record high sale rates. Steven King is one of the most renowned American authors famous for his horror and gothic stories. His books are widely recognized and read among children and adults. The nail biting horror stories have readers on the edge of their seat. King has published eleven books in two decades, making him one of the best selling authors in history. Stephen’s gothic writing contains an abundant amount of biblical references, his use of vocabulary is clever, and the character’s colloquial language.
Steven King had a difficult childhood that

King is known for his characters using a language that is torn between everyday spoken speech and the “proper” narration. Characters are often stringing sentences together, repeating phrases, and having speech that is full of slang. Some of his dialogue is unmediated thoughts from the narrator. “Thought is then spoken as spoken is to written” (Hohne). Character’s thoughts may occur as a commentary on the narrator’s or others speech as internal dialogue. For an example, In the book Misery, there is a lot of inner thought and narration from the main character Paul. “He thought: There comes a point when the very discussion of pain becomes redundant. No one knows there is pain the size of this in the world. No one. It is like being possessed by demons.” Misery is a very unique story because we are reading Paul’s thoughts and writing throughout the

Stephen isn’t a religious person but he does believe in God. “I’ve always tried to contrast that bright, white light of real goodness or Godliness against evil, I am not a proselytizer, I hate organized religion. I think it’s one of the roots of real evil that’s in the world. If you really unmask Satan, you’ll probably find that he’s wearing a turnaround collar” (1988 interview). The best way to understand King’s faith is not through his words, but through his stories. There are at least three biblical themes that can be seen in his writing, a child shall lead them, God can be cruel, and God chose the weak things. Many of Stephen’s most popular novels are filled with young heroines driven by faith. It’s a reaction of the passage in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament: “and a little child shall lead them.” In the Talisman and It, King had adolescent heroes who risk their lives fighting off evil, according to Marylaine Block. “In both novels, the adults are incapable of of understanding the evil that is about to envelop and destroy their world. They see the signs, but choose not to understand them. Only children know what is happening, and know that it is up to them to save the people they care about,” she