21. Mark Petrie the Houdini

The scene in the book that I keep coming back to occurs after Mark Petrie and Susan Norton break into the Marsten House. I keep coming back to it because it is so disturbing. The scene is where Mark is being carried to the attic by Straker. It is the first time that I saw the evil side of Straker. But even more disturbing is the fact that he practically beats up a child.

pg.309

"Mark bit his lip and writhed on the floor. Straker chuckled. 'Come, young master. To your feet.'"

"He kicked again, this time striking the large muscle of the thigh. The pain was dreadful, but Mark clenched his teeth together. He got his knees, and then to his feet."

The scene gets even more graphic when Mark gets out of the rope like Houdini and waits for Straker to come up the stairs so he can beat him to death.

pg.315

"He brought the leg down with both hands, not as hard as he could - he sacrificed some force for better aim. It struck Straker just above the temple, as he started to turn to look behind the door. his eyes, open wide, squeezed shut in pain. Blood flew from the scalp wound in an amazing spray."

As much as this scene was disturbing for me, I also felt that it was a turning point in the novel. If a young boy like Mark Petrie could kill a large, intimidating, evil man like Straker, there was still that hope that good could preside over evil. I think that if it was any other person put in the place of Mark, Straker would never have carried out his Master's plan. The reason Stephen King put Mark in that position goes back to the fact that he wanted the reader to think like a child. Mark Petrie was thinking irrationally. As stupid as his Houdini plan might have sounded to an adult, he made it work. I think that if an adult was put into that situation, they would have just waited for their death because they would have thought that they were already defeated.