Critical Response Paper To King's "The Body"

Critical Response Paper to King's "The Body"

Stephen King's "The Body" is a story about four friends who overhear from an older child that a body was hit by a train and is located in the woods. This sparks the interest of the young children and they venture out to experience this dead body first hand. Upon first reading the novel, it seems as though this story is nothing more than a simple journey with jovial experiences and mishaps of four friends. However, after a more thorough analysis, it is clear that Stephen King has attempted to do two things: first, he is making an attempt to narrate his own personal life story and secondly, "The Body" is a story of one's journey from adolescence and innocence to maturity and adulthood. This story was written in the first person point of view which has its benefits and disadvantages. The benefit of being written in first person is that the story becomes more believable and thus King's first attempt at narrating his own personal life is more attainable. However, when writing in first person, it is impossible for the reader to know what is going on in the minds of the other characters. Therefore, King's attempt at telling a story about psychological rather than physical transformations proves to be more difficult. Using examples and additional research, I will attempt to explain whether or not Stephen King was successful in obtaining his two objectives and if he was, I will then answer the question as to whether or not it was worth doing.

The main character of "The Body" is Gordon Lachance who is a successful novelist and is telling the story of his childhood experience of searching for a body that was run over by a train. Gordon is looking back into his childhood where he remembers the loss of his brother and how that caused his parents to shun away from him. After doing my own research, I realized that Stephen King also lost a lot of attention from his parents since his father left him at a very young age, forcing his mother to take up several odd jobs, which in turn took her away from young Stephen King. Also, prior to his death, Gordon's brother was very supportive of his writings and encouraged him to pursue this hobby into a career someday. This also related to King's life because his brother, although only two years older, encouraged him to pursue a career in writing. Another aspect of "The Body" is its setting, Caste Rock, Maine, a fictional town which King has repeatedly used in several of his stories. However, it is known that this fictional town is truly King's hometown of Durham.