The Running Man Essay

In Stephen King’s, The Running Man, Ben Richards goes to the greatest lengths to do everything he can to save his daughter Catherine Sarah, who is sick. The Richards family is in the lower class population, so he needs to find a way to get the money so that he can take care of his daughter. Ben then takes it upon himself to sign up for a reality TV show that is called The Running Man. The purpose of this show is to kill the participants, and the viewers of the show can receive money if they tell “The Games People” about the participant’s whereabouts. Throughout the show he will get paid $100 for every hour he is alive and additional money if he kills any law enforcement, and if he survives he will receive a grand prize of $1 billion dollars.

The likelihood of staying alive is very slim, considering that no one has ever survived the entire 30 days. This dystopian novel tells the readers that the world is becoming more uncivilized but the love a father has for his daughter will allow him to push through great trials to do the best he can for her.
There are a couple themes that come to mind when thinking of this story.

One being the love that a father has for his daughter. Ben, the father to Catherine Sarah is willing to risk his life on this horrible TV show that puts the world against him. Anyone can turn you in for money, so making friends and relying on others is very hard for the participants. Although Ben finds a way to do this and gets lucky with who he has chosen to trust. Leaning on others to do things and having those people not turn Ben is something that is very important in the games. Being able to rely on friends was another theme found in the story. It was very important that Ben learn who to trust and who not to trust during this

time.
The story that King tells the audience about Ben, enrolling himself in the games to get money used for medicine to help his daughter, is an example of what parents will do for their kids.

This is one of the themes found throughout the story. Ben continued to think of his daughter and tell others along his path why he was doing this, always explaining that his daughter Catherine Sarah was at home and has very little access to the pharmaceutical drugs to take care of her illness. When Bradley asks why he was doing this show he replies “My little girl’s name is Cathy…Younger than Cassie. Pneumonia. She cries all the time, too.” (King 1) Ben had tried everything he could to provide what was needed for his daughter but at this point he was saying “I went for the money the only way I could.” (King 1) The other theme throughout the novel is lean on friends. Richards had been walking in the alley and ran into Stacey, a young African American boy. Stacey then took Richards to his home, and even risked being caught with him. Upon their arrival at Stacey’s home they were greeted by Bradley, Stacey’s brother. After talking a bit, Stacey and Bradley had come up with a plan to get Richards out of Boston secretly. Through the use of help of others, he made the trip in the trunk of a car without getting

caught.
On the KTLA news, there is a tragic story of another horrifying shooting in Menasha, Wisconsin. The gunman had opened fire on victims he did not know on a pedestrian bridge and Erin Stoffel and her family were some of the people there at that time. Her husband and 11-year-old daughter were shot and killed. Erin Stoffel herself was shot three times and still was able to get her two other kids off of that bridge and to a safe place. During the shooting Erin got her young son to run for and get help. Erin and her son are very heroic in this story, even with the loss of life that did happen, they still prevented the situation getting worse. This story shows that the love a parent has for their children is so strong that it can take three bullets and still get them to safety.
This story relates to me because I always had the hardest time finding someone to trust with everything. I trusted my family of course but I needed that friend that I could just tell everything to without judgment or worry of them telling someone. Before college I never really had great luck with friends, I had friends but they were people where I was always worried about getting judged. Luckily in college I have an abundance of friends that I can trust with anything. They are there for me through thick and thin. I have now learned that I can rely on others for help, you just need to be careful who to trust.
This book is very different from anything I had read before. The author did an amazing job with the details of this book and really highlighted what the future may look like. Though it is terrifying to think that maybe our future would look something like the book. I would recommend this book because it makes you think. While reading this book I often thought about, “How did the country get to this point?” and “What events led up to this point to make the country like this?” This story provides the reader with thought provoking plot and keeps the reader imagining what they would do in Ben’s situation.

Works Cited
King, Stephen. The running man. New York: Gallery , 2016. Print.
"Mother Shot 3 Times Trying to Save 2 of Her Children; Husband and Daughter Killed." KTLA. N.p., 06 May 2015. Web. 16 June 2017.