6. Like Father, Like Son, Like King

After reading Stephen King's introduction and the description of Ben Mears and Mark Petrie, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between all of them. I think that Stephen King put himself in the book through Mark Petrie and Ben Mears.


In the introduction to the book, Stephen King shared with us that he was really into what his mom termed, "bad trash" novels when he was a kid. He liked reading vampire novels such as Bram Stoker's Dracula and E.C.'s comic books. He was one of those kids who read books beyond his years. Which in turn, influenced his decision to create 'Salem's Lot.


One of the main characters in this novel was Mark Petrie. Stephen King made Mark Petrie a mere image of himself. When Mark Petrie's character was introduced, the Glick brothers were talking about going over to his house because he had all of those toys that many mothers, like Stephen King's, would term "bad trash". In a way, Mark Petrie was also interested in things beyond his years.


pg.83


"Danny made the mistake of telling his brother that Mark Petrie had the entire set of Aurora plastic monsters - wolfman, mummy, Dracular, Frankenstein, the mad doctor, and even the Chamber of Horrors. Their mother thought all that stuff was bad news, rotted your brains out or something..."


Right away I see the connection between Stephen King and his character Mark Petrie. on top of that, Stephen King proceeded to add another nearly identical character to the mix, Ben Mears. In the beginnig we don't know a lot about Ben Mears, only that he had lived in the town for about four years and had come back to write a novel. Sounds an awful lot like Stephen King writing a novel on vampires in small towns. Coincidence? I don't think so.


I'll talk a little more about this later, but the novel begins and ends with an image of Mark Petrie and Ben Mears looking like father and son. This image confirms my thoughts that Stephen King, Ben Mears and Mark Petrie are all one in the same. Stephen King doesn't really clearly state the similarity until the end.


pg. 340


"They looked at each other for no great space of time, but for Ben the moment seemed to undergo a queer stretching, and a feeling of unreality swept him. The boy reminded him physically of the boy he himself had been, but it was more than that."


Most importantly, the relationship between the two characters was important because it enabled them to develop trust throughout the rest of the novel. It allowed them to use their similarities and that trust to complete the ultimate goal; they would kill Barlow and give the town a new beginning.