Literary Analysis of Stephen Kings the Stand Essay Example for Free

Literary Analysis of Stephen Kings the have EssayPeople behave strangely when more than ninety-nine percent of the population is dead. They behave n atomic number 53theless more strangely when theyre the prize of a cosmic struggle. In Stephen Kings envisage/horror, The raise, a plague created by the military decimates the modern world. The hu humannesss that survived the plague argon now the trade good of the personifications of good and evil, the troops in an epically proportioned conflict. The book begins with the spread and origin of the plague and the toll it takes on refinement and the population. Its spread through the nation, and then throughout the world, brings chaos in martial law, with horrible atrocities being pull by many of those still alive and in exponent. Military brutality is rampant, and all human rights are being ignored or even deliberately violated civilization and society are disintegrating in the face of mass death. Meanwhile, the survivors are str uggling to endure the mental burden of being alone and guardianship to the dead and dying. They begin to find each other, but are plagued by horrible nightmares, the embodiment of their scald fears come to haunt them in their dreamland.These begin to be counterbalanced by dreams of a benevolent quondam(a) woman, and all of the living and still-functioning coalesce around these two figures. A society forms around each one of death, in Las Ve atom smasher around Flagg, and one of life, in Boulder, Colorado, around fetch Abagail. As powers converge and events unfold, the future heap of humanity is decided. The Walkin Dude the dark man the man with no face him Randall Flagg. The purest embodiment of evil, not alone is he privy to an occasional demonic countenance, he is even sometimes allegorically referenced to the Devil.He is depicted as sowing death and discord with his very presence, showing them to be integral parts of his character when he grins, birds give-up the ghost de ad off telephone lines. The grass yellows up and dies where he spits. . . . . His name is Legion. . . . . He can call the wolves and live in the crows. Hes the king of nowhere (939). The dark man is terror personified, and even those that are loyal to him feel a primeval fear and animal abominate of him. However, evil is a relative thing, and can only be named as such if in that location is a foil to it. In this case, it is Mother Abagail.She is the safety and comfort of a mothers arms, the warmth and shaft of a good home she is human in a way Flagg is not and and then overmatch to the weakness of humanity. Wise and kind though she may be, she is understandably bitter about her fate to go away with strangers from all the things you love best and die in a strange land with the act as not yet finished (607). Eventually, she offends God with the sin of Pride, and must go on a pilgrims jaunt out into the desert (a very appropriate biblical parallel) to get right with God (940), a followers which, in the end, results in her demise.However, the divine wisdom she gained on this pilgrimage, she put to use in her ordering of the journey of the four to the West, resulting in the end of Flaggs reign and freedom for the people of the aptly-named Free Zone. One-hundred-and-eight years old, Mother Abagail is both an icon of vitality and frailty she represents the dual, paradoxical, and precarious nature of good present in both people and civilization as a whole.Mother Abagails final action was to send a quest she began the group of people at her deathbed namely Stu Redman, Glen Bateman, Ralph Brentner, and Larry Underwood on a perilous journey West, to destroy Flagg. Of these four characters (though they are obviously the primary focus of the end part of the novel) Ralph is probably the least(prenominal) important, him and Glen being fairly minor characters that rarely if ever are given voice by King. Stu, however, is the attracter of both this group and the ent ire Free Zone, and also the first major character we are introduced to and the explanations primary protagonist.Through his eyes, we see the progenitor of the disease weave his car into a gas station and open Pandoras Box to the world, the struggle of a dying government to contain what is already far beyond its reach, and the eventual convergence of people and regrouping of society. He is the sturdy, masculine, and conventionally established image of innovative strength and hope arising from tragedy. Throughout the story, he serves as a voice of reason and calm kickshaw he is a man who understands the world and people of it. Often, Stu is characterized as a man who doesnt talk lots (598) r a man of few words (402), and as being extremely perceptive and quick he is quite skillful at inferring peoples thoughts through his distinctive silent observation. He is a stoic, strong character that embodies the spirit necessary to thrive and survive in this strange unsanded world. Glen Ba teman is a sociologist, an invaluable asset to the construction of a in the buff society. Though in and of himself a sort of minor main character, he plays a hugely important role throughout the novel as the vessel of Stephen King.When a point is to be made about the ramifications of the superflu or ensuing human behaviors, it is about everlastingly done through Glen. Though often cynical (if you want to short-circuit the democratic process, retributory ask a sociologist) (749), he provides analyses such as these Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number and is eternally trying to get digest home (458) ones that are incredibly valuable and insightful, and provide a unusual but accurate viewpoint on the big picture.Glen provides an opportunity for King to force-feed readers the main ideas they may not have understood or picked up on for themselves. Larry is a tortured soul. A rising musician in the West, he ge ts involved with illegal drugs, loses the means to pay for them, and so flees to the East, connecter his mother in New York. He is constantly haunted by the condemnations of a woman he slept with and deserted You aint no nice guy (106) and the words of a friend of his from back West theres something in you thats like biting on tinfoil (817).Without fail, these two phrases always accompany a Larry Underwood attack of conscience, most heavily when those he considers to be under his disturbance meet an unfortunate fate. A defining irregular for him occurs when the woman he has been traveling with dies of pill overdose, and he is left alone he traverses the northeast U. S. on foot, too terrified by the thought of demolishing with nobody to help him to use the motorcycle he had been before. As he fights the terror and psychological chafe of solitude, slowly unraveling, he meets others along the way, and begins to find the strength and good within himself to lead and help and heal. subsequently he has grudgingly taken on and essentially begun to head a group of twenty or so people, Judge Farris, an extremely intelligent old man that is traveling with him, calls him all the things the civics books tell us the good citizens should be . . . . They make the best leaders in a democracy because they are flimsy to fall in love with power (728). Larry is the redemption that only comes through great suffering and turmoil. The Stand mostly takes place in a desolate, dead America of the 1990s. Its a place that is both promising in its opportunity and foreboding in its vast emptiness.As the resultant of a non-cataclysmic apocalypse, there is very little damage to the infrastructure of the nation All the machinery is practiced sitting there, waiting for someone to come along . . . and start it up again (406). Several characters note consistently the dangers inherent in having all the old tools lying around the temptation to resurrect the old, destructive ways is greatl y increase by the sheer ease with which it could be done. The empty, devoid-of-life landscape, coupled with the only temporarily dormant tools adds a new dimension of danger to the already unpleasant situation of those that survived the plague.King prefers to make his characters the masters of their own fates. separately is presented with his or her own choice, where, in that one and usually only instant, they are completely aware of the ramifications of their actions, which power they are aligning themselves with, and the consequences of doing so. Some manage to abstain from the allure of evil, while others succumb to it hopelessly For just a moment part of his mind cried Harold Stop so strongly that he was shaken to his heels . . . . For that moment it seemed he could put the bitter drink away, pour it out of the cup, and refill it with w nauseatever there was for him in this world. . . . but maybe it was already too late (663). Typically, those that fall are those that are part icularly tragicomical or lonely or felt themselves to be outcasts in the now-dead world. The pain nurtures a destructive hate in their hearts, a pain that the dark man can speak to and win over. Evil is innately destructive, while good is naturally an assembling force. King describes evil as only capable of destroying, and therefore only able to cannibalize itself nothing constructed by one of evil will endure things fall apart, the centre does not hold.Good being the complement to evil, it of course has a congruously opposite structure though the edges may tatter and fray, the center is strong because it is based on the people and what they wish to uphold in their deepest selves. Stephen Kings Stand is an all-encompassing work it contains elements of social and religious commentary, supernatural creatures, romance, murder, insanity, loneliness, family, etc. These elements even up a work detailing the human experience, viewed through the distorted lens of group and individual psyc hological shock.