Sunday, May 2, 2010

14. Personal Invite


As you've seen from my past two blogs, I have really been interested in the evil aspect of this book. I want to entertain one more thought, however, before I move on. We held a brief discussion in my english class about whether the town makes the people evil or whether people make the town evil. In terms of what I've discussed already about evil, I have come to the conclusion that the people must surely make the town evil. This place has already been contaminated with evil thoughts and actions long before the vampires arrived.

A little more than halfway through the book, I began to see that the town had a lot of underlying secrets. Weasel had an issue with alcohol, Bonnie Sawyer cheated on her husband with a young kid named Bryant, Mrs. McDougall hit her baby, and Larry Crockett liked to make deals with the devil. I can't help to see that all of these lies and secrets were a personal invitation for vampires to take advantage of.

It is a well-known stereotype that vampires must be invited in order to cause harm. King sticks with the logic that the people of the town and their petty lies invite the vampires in. The following passage confirms my thought process:

pg. 231

"These are the town's secrets, and some will later be known and some will never be known. The town keeps them all with the ultimate poker face. The town cares for the devil's work no more than it cares for God's or man's. It knew darkness. And darkness was enough.

Darkness was enough to invite Barlow and Straker and the Marsten House was their temporary home.




No comments:

Post a Comment