<<

Appendix: I A Glance at ’s Life

Illustration 20: Stephen King

182 Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine, USA, to Donald Edwin King and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury. When he was two years old, his father (born David Spansky) deserted his family and Ruth raised Stephen and his brother David by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family moved to Ruth’s home town of Durham, Maine but also spent brief periods in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Stratford, Connecticut. King attended Durham Elementary Grammar School and then nearby Lisbon High School. He has been writing since an early age. When in school, he wrote stories plagiarised from what he’d been reading at the time, and sold them to his friends. This was not popular among his teachers, and he was forced to return his profits when this was discovered. From 1966 to 1970, King studied English at the at Orono. There, King wrote a column in the school magazine called “King’s Garbage Truck”. At the university, he also met Tabitha Spruce who he married in 1971. King took on odd jobs to pay for his studies. One of them was at an industrial laundry, from which he drew material for the “The Mangler”. This period in his life is readily evident in the second part of After finishing his university studies with a Bachelor of Science in English and obtaining a certificate to teach high school, King took a job as an English teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. During this time he and his family lived in a trailer. Making ends meet was sometimes difficult, and the money that came from short stories, published mainly in men’s magazines, was very

183 useful. King also developed a drinking problem which stayed with him for over a decade. During this period, King began a number of novels. One of them told a story of a young girl with powers. Frustrated with , he threw it into the trash. , he discovered that Tabitha had rescued it; she encouraged him to finish it as . In On Writing, King admits that at this time he was consistently drunk and that he was an alcoholic for well over a decade. He’d based the alcoholic father in on himself, though he didn’t admit it for several years. Shortly after the publication of , King’s family and friends finally intervened, dumping his trash on the rug in front of him to show him the evidence of his own addictions: beer cans, cigarette butts, grams of , Xanax, Valium, NyQuil. He sought help, and quit drinking in the late 1980s. King received the in 1978 from The World Convention for his book The Shining. In 1986, he received the Golden Pen Award from The Young Adult Advisory Committee of the Spokane Public Library as the most entertaining writer. In 1994, he won an O. Henry Award for his short story, “The Man in the Black Suit”, and in 2003 He was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Book Awards. In the summer of 1999, he had a terrible car accident which would likely have killed him or put him in a permanent coma. King has written six books under the pseudonym . He staged a mock funeral for Bachman after the pseudonym was made public, which in turn inspired the book The

184 Dark Half, in which a novelist stages the burial of his horror author pseudonym after having a “serious” novel published, only to find that his alter ego does not want to leave quite so easily. He has also written a few books or short stories under the names John Swithen and George Stark (the name of the pseudonym in ) as well. King plays the guitar in the band and is also a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox, and is frequently found at both home and away baseball games. He recently co-wrote a book with Steward O’Nan chronicling their reaction to the Red Sox’ win in the 2004 American League Championship Series and World Series. The book is named . At present, he lives in Bangor, Maine area with his wife , who is also a novelist. He spends winter seasons in an oceanfront mansion located off the Gulf of Mexico in Nokmis, Florida. Their three children, Naomi Rachell, (who appeared in the film ), and Owen Phillip, are now grown and living on their own. King is a prolific writer. The details follow on the next page.

185 Appendix: II Stephen King’s Literary Works Novels 1. Carrie (1974) 2. Salem’s Lot (1975) 3. (1977) (as Richard Bachman) 4. The Shining (1977) 5. (1978) 6. (1979) (as Richard Bachman) 7. (1979) 8. (1980) 9. (1981) (as Richard Bachman) 10. (1981) 11. I: (1982) 12. (1982) (as Richard Bachman) 13. (1983) 14. (1983) 15. (1984) (written with ) 16. (1984) (as Richard Bachman) 17. It (1986) 18. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987) 19. (1987) 20. (1987) 21. The Tommyknockers (1988) 22. The Dark Half (1989) 23. The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990)

186 24. The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991) 25. (1991) 26. Gerald’s Game (1992) 27. (1993) 28. (1994) 29. (1995) 30. (1996) 31. 1: The Two dead Girls (1996) 32. The Green Mile 2: The Mouse on the Mile (1996) 33. The Green Mile 3: Coffey’s Hands (1996) 34. The Green Mile 4: The Bad Death of Edward Delacroix (1996) 35. The Green Mile 5: Night Journey (1996) 36. The Green Mile 6: Coffey on the Mile (1996) 37. (1996) (as Richard Bachman) 38. The Dark Tower IV: Wizard & Glass (1997) 39. (1998) 40. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) 41. The Green Mile (2000) 42. (2000) 43. (2001) (written with Peter Straub) 44. (2001) 45. (2002) 46. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003) 47. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004) 48. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004) 49. (2005)

187 50. (2006) 51. Lisey’s Story (2006)

Short Stories 1. Battleground (1978) 2. The Boogeyman (1978) 3. (1978) 4. Graveyard Shift (1978) 5. Gray Matter (1978) 6. I am the Doorway (1978) 7. (1978) 8. Quitters,Inc. (1978) 9. (1978) 10. Strawberry Spring (1978) 11. (1978) 12. Jerusalem’s Lot (1978) 13. The Last Rung on the Ladder (1978) 14. (1978) 15. (1978) 16. The Man Who Loved Flowers (1978) 17. The Mangler (1978) 18. Night Surf (1978) 19. One for the Road (1978) 20. (1978) 21. Apt Pupil (1982) 22. (1982)

188 23. (1982) 24. Rita Hayworth and (1982) 25. The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet (1985) 26. Beachworld (1985) 27. Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2) (1985) 28. (1985) 29. Here There Be Tigers (1985) 30. (1985) 31. (1985) 32. (1985) 33. (1985) 34. The Reaper’s Image (1985) 35. The (1985) 36. (1985) 37. The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands (1985) 38. (1985) 39. (1985) 40. Morning Deliveries (Milkman # 1) (1985) 41. Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut (1985) 42. (1985) 43. Paranoid: A Chant (1985) 44. Uncle Otto’s Truck (1985) 45. The wedding Gig (1985) 46. Word Processor of the Gods (1985) 47. Dolan’s Cadillac (1989) 48. The Sun Dog (1990)

189 49. , Secret Garden (1990) 50. The Langoliers (1990) 51. The Library Policeman (1990) 52. (1993) 53. Chattery Teeth (1993) 54. (1993) 55. (1993) 56. The Doctor’s Case (1993) 57. Dolan’s Cadillac (1993) 58. The End of the Whole Mess (1993) 59. The Fifth Quarter (1993) 60. Home Delivery (1993) 61. The House on Maple Street (1993) 62. Rainy Season (1993) 63. (1993) 64. Sorry, Right Number (1993) 65. Suffer the Little Children (1993) 66. The Ten O’ Clock People (1993) 67. Umney’s Last Case (1993) 68. (1993) 69. The Moving Finger (1993) 70. (1993) 71. The Night Flier (1993) 72. (1993) 73. You Know They’ve Got a Hell of a Band (1993) 74. My Pretty Pony (1998) 75. (1999)

190 76. Riding the Bullet (2000) 77. 1408 (2002) 78. All That You Love Will Be Carried Away (2002) 79. Autopsy Room Four (2002) 80. The Death of Jack Hamilton (2002) 81. Everything’s Eventual (2002) 82. In The Deathroom (2002) 83. Road Virus Heads North (2002) 84. That Feeling, You can Only Say What It is in French (2002) 85. L.T.’s Theory of Pets (2002) 86. Little Sisters of Eluria (2002) 87. Luckey Quarter (2002) 88. Lunch at the Gotham Cafe (2002) 89. The Man in the Black Suit (2002) 90. The Stationary Bike (2004) Non-fiction 1. Danse Macabra (1981) 2. Head Down (1993) 3. (2000) 4. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000) 5. Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Sea… (2004)

Collections of Stories 1. (1982) 2. Skeleton Crew (1985)

191 3. (1990) 4. (1997) 5. Hearts in Atlantis (1999) 6. Everything’s Eventual (2002)

Children’s Book 1. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon : A Pop-Up Book (2004)

Comic 1. Creepshow I (1982)

Screenplay 1. (1999)

Novella 1. Different Seasons (1982)

192 Appendix: III Psychology in People’s Behaviour

This input is a little technical in information. The present research feels that since King’s works include many such technical terms and concepts, it would be useful to know some of them here. Psychology has taken on an important role in literary works since the early 20th century since D.H. Lowrence has brought the psycho-analytical approach of Sigmund Freud in some of his novels. Later, I.A. Richard has brought the experimental result of psycho- analytical approach to study the beauty of literature. The development and detailing of character is one of the important components for writing novels. To study characters is the same as to study general things, that is to say we must know nature, names, family, sex, race, personality, economic reaction status, society, education, characters’ relationships, behaviour, feeling, and also causes of such behaviour. (Wipa Kongkanan. 1979: 67) Living characters usually develop and display knowledge, thoughts, and emotion in accordance with the environments and time in which they exist. The characters that are able to attract the greatest audiences are the ones who differ from the others in the story. (Reunruetai Sadjapan. 1978: 202) Anyway, according to Psychology, behaviour which is different from most peoples’ is called “abnormal” or “disordered”. This behaviour may or may not cause the person to have problems for living in society. At present, abnormal behaviour has been divided

193 into several categories. The American Psychiatric Association has divided abnormal behaviour into 11 categories as follows: (Suto Charoensak. 1977: 10-11) 1. Mental Retardation 2. Organic Brain Syndromes 3. Psychoses (3) Schizophrenia Affective Disorders (2) Manic Depressive Paranoia 4. Neuroses (4) Anxiety Phobia Hysteria Hypochondria 5. Personality Disorders 6. Psychophysiological Disorders 7. Special Symptoms 8. Transient Situational Disturbances 9. Behaviour Disorders of Childhood and Adolescence 10. Conditions which exist without Manifested Psychiatric Disorders 11. Other abnormal behaviours which are not inserted in the ten condition previously mentioned Nuanla-oa Sopapol divided abnormal behaviour into four categories as follows: (Nuanla-oa Sopapol. 1980: 3)

194 1. Personality Disorders 2. Neuroses and Psychoses 3. Psychophysiological Disorders or Psychosomatic Disorders 4. Maladjustments People who exhibit abnormal behaviour which may result from the four main following causes: 1. Physical such as heredity, nerve system, glands in body and weak points of body. 2. Psychology is the mind system which makes mind unbalanced, e.g. motive, frustration, conflicts, emotion and cognitive process. 3. Home environment means home condition that does not support the development of personality such as parents’ nurture, home regulations and parents’ relationship 4. Culture Some cultures have directly effects on producing abnormal behaviour such as education, religion and technology etc. Abnormal behaviour may result from any one of the above listed causes. Psychosis is described as a severe abnormal behaviour that changes people’s personality. The patients will forget their own world and their relationship with others. They create their own world. Symptoms of Psychosis The patients will change their personality as follows: 1. Exhibited Behaviour 2. Emotions 3. Thought processes 4. Receptiveness

195 5. Recognition and intention 6. Intelligence Psychosis is able to be widely divided into two distinct manifestations as follows: 1. Functional Psychosis causes from an unbalanced mind which involves much tension and pressure and leads to maladjustment. There are as follows: Schizophrenia caused from abnormal thinking. Affective Reaction caused from abnormal emotion. Paranoia caused from wrong decision. 2. Organic Psychosis as a result of damage to the brain or central nerve system caused from poisonous objects being introduced into the body, e.g. alcohol, drugs, etc. divided into 6 kinds as follows: General Paresis causes from untreated Syphillis disease. The disease takes 10-15 years for hatching in the brain and then destroys. Traumatic Psychosis causes from an accident, injury or illness to the brain for example, beasts that are killers cause abnormal brains and destroy the working process, e.g. emotion, thought, receptive organs and movement organs. Cerebral Arteriosclerosis Psychosis usually occurs in people who are 50 years of age or more. People, who have Syphillis, suffer from alcoholism and long-time tension. These cause an

196 inflammation in the brain. The blood can hardly be brought to the cerebellum. When the cerebellum lacks blood, the blood vessel will be broken. Psychosis with Neurological Disorder causes from illness in the brain, or as a result of heredity or malnutrition. The mind gradually degenerates. Receptive organs get confused, experience individual numbness, trembling, drowsiness and sense of worry. Presenile Psychosis occurs in people between 40-60 years which has two kinds as follows: Alzheimer’s Disease gradually degenerates, nerve distracting, feeling of being harmed. Pick’s Disease Patients lack care of environment, experience regression in behaviour and exhibit childish behaviours and reactions. 2.6 Senile Psychosis occurs in people over 60 years of age, a condition which is caused from regression of development. Brains degenerate or cause damage as a result of alcoholism, tension or other serious problems. The symptoms include brain- degeneration, craziness, forgetfulness and grief.

197 Neurosis means a symptom caused from long-time anxiety, tension and oppression. It makes emotion and mind change and is expressed in several reactions. The causes of tension which lead to suffering from Neurosis include failure in life e.g. study, work, uncompromising family, feeling of inferiority complex, unfairness and social pressure etc. These problems obstruct people from Actual Self-Realization to Ideal Self and lead to symptoms of Neurosis. Neurosis maybe divided into six types as follows: (Likit Kanjanaporn. 1990: 217-221) 1. Anxiety Reaction caused from anxiety included with physical symptom; respiratory system (irregular respiration), trembling mind and dizziness, etc. 2. Depressive Reaction The conspicuous symptoms are drowsiness emotion, becoming occupied with something special, down- heartedness and or becoming excessively upset, exhibiting irritated emotions, etc. Patients who experience severe symptoms may become suicidal. 3. Obsessive-Compulsive Reaction The conspicuous symptoms are of two kinds, namely: Obsessive and Compulsive Reaction. Actually, Compulsive Reaction is caused from Obsessive Reaction. Obsessive- Compulsive Reaction occurs when people have their own conflict in the mind between Id and Super Ego such as being strictly brought up, being around strict family

198 members (too many strict regulations) Sometimes, patients severely break moral rules leads to the condition of Obsessive and Compulsive Reaction. 4. Hysterical Reaction The conspicuous symptoms may include severe headaches, Exhausted feeling, physical pain e.g. backaches, pains in the chest, racing or irregular heartbeat, etc. Patients tend to be in love or suffer from Narcissism. They seek to get praise and superiority in any situation. Therefore, emotion will be expressed when they are obstructed. When they undergo much tension, they will harm themselves. 5. Phobic Reaction Phobic Reaction is a result of severe and unreasonable fear. It often happens when patients cannot effectively control their fears and their emotions. So, they try to avoid something that causes them to experience fears. Both fears and avoidance are as a result of tension and worry. 6. Hypochondriacal Reaction The conspicuous symptoms of patients are that they are worried about their health. Though their bodies are normal, they still worry. This worry about possible illness causes severe anxiety, grieved emotions or Compulsive Constant Reaction and is usually expressed in physical tension. Neurosis patients’ perception are sometimes far removed from the real world but sometimes seem easy to apply to their present situation. Being Neurotic shows the person to be having external pressure: unable to adjust to normal environment and also have

199 mental pressure that leads to a breakdown in life. Neurosis patients lack behavioral control. They express fear and appear anxious about many things. Sometimes they express their immature emotions. They will have chronic symptoms. They always have grieved emotions. Sometimes they can control themselves enough to succeed at their work but cannot solve problems which have deepened in their mind since the time of their youth except by getting help from psychologists. People’s or animals’ behaviour are always changeable. Once, when a child touches a flame of candle then feels hot and gets blistered, he won’t wish to touch the flame again. When a child cries for a toy and his parents buy it for him, he will cry again when he wants some more. Hence, psychologists define that learning is a change of behaviour caused from training or life experiences. The ability to adapt one’s behaviour makes people adjust to environment and survive. Meanwhile, people are able to learn to act out abnormal behaviour. Generally speaking, people benefit from learning. The prominent benefits are people’s progress created and life quality increased. From innocent babies, they are brought up by parents then become efficient adults. The change resulted from both growth and learning experiences. Bloom says that when learning occurs, it must have three changes for a perfect learning as follows. (Bloom. 1975: 19-20) 1. Cognitive Domain is a change in brains such as in concepts held, etc. 2. Affective Domain is a change in minds such as in interests, beliefs, attitudes, social value etc.

200 3. Psychomotor Domain is a change of body movement such as swimming etc. Bloom also says that good learning depends on several components: 1. Drive 2. Readiness 3. Need 4. Emotion and Adjustment 5. Motivation 6. Reinforcement 7. Attitude and Interest 8. Concept Formation 9. Memory 10. Aptitude and Intelligence Motivation consists of two main parts: 1. Motive means needs, interests, attitudes, character etc. They are all in human bodies. 2. Incentive means outside stimulus which guide human’s behaviour. Motive Theory is caused from the following: (Obrom Sinpiban. 1979: 49-53) 1. Hedonistic (Need for personal happiness) 2. Instinctual 3. Cognitive (To have reasons) 4. Drive The belief in Motive Theory caused from Hedonistic pursuits suggests that people intend to do anything to achieve a balance

201 between both happiness and sorrow. It is said that people who want sorrow don’t mean that they are not happy but it is happiness they are pleased. The belief in Motive Theory caused from instincts suggests that instincts have set the process of responsive reaction to environment. And people’s motive has existed before learning and also believes that people have social instincts or heredity. The Cognitive Theory is a belief that people have the free will to act or decide for themselves. They are sensible and know for what they wish. The Drive Theory is a belief that people’s behaviour or habits relate to drive as we know that people’s differences are resultant from long time experiences and learning. The concept of introducing psychology into the literary realm is mostly caused by writers analysing psychologists’ studies. This theory suggests that behaviour is caused from the subconscious. Psychoanalysis psychologists have compared the subconscious with icebergs sunk under the surface of oceans and consciousness with ones which appear upon the surface of the oceans. The smaller parts of icebergs which appear upon the surface of the oceans are open to the sun light and to elements such as temperature and wind that we can see are minds or behaviour which we can control. The bigger parts which sunk under the oceans are dark and hidden from people’s eyes which include the subconscious which is the collection of one’s experiences. The subconscious is kept to wait for wishes. In an abnormal condition, the mind is compared with an altered atmosphere; wavy seas, rolling icebergs. The icebergs used to sink in

202 the sea appear upon the surface of the oceans which we can see. Likewise, when people are moody, serious, angry, hateful, jealous and vindictive etc, the power of the subconscious will be driven to express several behaviours. Mostly it will drive abnormal behaviours. The power of the subconscious has many levels. Some are shallow but some are deep and also different in drive. Hence, people react differently to the power of the subconscious and consciousness. Therefore, people develop different personalities. Mind power that stimulates people to behave may be conscious or subconscious, for example, careful speaking is stimulated by consciousness only while careless speech is evoked by the subconscious. Mostly, behaviour is caused from both the consciousness and subconscious, for example, we carelessly speak then we immediately recognize and change words, thoughts and actions. (Srireun Keawkangwan. 1976: 5) Mentioning components of mind, Freud has set Structural Hypothesis Theory. He divides the mind structure into three parts: Id, Ego and Superego. According to Freud, people are born under the instinct of power which leads to manifestations of behaviour. One instinct leads to survival. Another one leads to death. These powers are the components of the Id, subconscious. Id will drive the Ego to act out for happiness. Instinct of death will cause aggressiveness and destruction. Both drives have the ways to act out that make Ego suffer to respond to Id. Actually, nature will limit the ability to respond to Ego. Besides, Ego must be under control of the Superego which results from societal training. Superego will control Id and Ego to

203 properly behave. Most behaviour of Id, Ego and Superego follow consciousness. Clearly compared that Id is the basic component of personality in biology. Ego is the basic component of mind and Superego is the controls of society. However, sometimes Id will drive the Ego to respond to decrease tension. If Ego cannot do so because of the objection to Superego, this will cause objections to emerge between the Id and Superego that lead to an increase in anxiety levels. Hence, Ego must develop a form of behaviour to protect the conditions called, Defense Mechanism. (Chaiyaporn Witchawut. 1982: 133) Defense Mechanism that people utilise to decrease anxiety levels and tension are divided into three categories as follows: (Nuanla-oa Sopapol. 1980: 35-42) 1. Mechanism of Deception It is a mechanism that people use to protect themselves from receiving any stimulus which causes tension and which can be done by using one of these following: 1.1. Rationalisation means finding out reasons to take their own sides. 1.2. Projection means trying to throw onto other people all guilt. 1.3. Displacement is a kind of projection but people will change or diminish their reaction or level of harmlessness from the original levels. 1.4. Repression is an unconscious process. People will harbour unpleasantness, shameful incidents and guilt driven from consciousness to the subconscious.

204 1.5. Suppression People intend to control thoughts, and improper stimulus to keep out of consciousness. 2. Mechanism of Substitution It is a mechanism that helps people decrease anxiety by changing objectives as follows: Compensation is the method of raising self-importance by beating failure or weakness and discovering ability to compensate. Substitution is the method of decreasing tension by changing objectives. It differs from Compensation since compensation changes both objectives and activities while in Substitution, new objectives are quite similar to the original. Sublimation is the drawing down of tension or bad power to properly behave in order to please society. Reaction Formation. It happens when original behaviours or stimulus are severely forced and the individual affected feels guilty, the reaction will be expressed to relax or soften guilt. Egocentricism means the method that people try to make themselves attractive to others. 3. Mechanism of Avoidance It is a mechanism that helps people avoid situations which cause anxiety. It is a way to reform lives without difficulty as follows:

205 People seek pleasure from imagination to compensate for the lack of real pleasure such as in day dreaming. Regression It is a process to decrease anxiety by reverting back to former more pleasant thoughts, feelings or behaviours that have succeeded. Negativism It is a refusal to cooperate in serious situations. People will oppose seniority, disobey other people’s advice or wishes. Identification It is a process that people get satisfaction from other people or things. The above Defense Mechanisms are the methods for people to adjust themselves to maintain happier lives. Anyway, if they are used too much, people will not be able to solve problems because they only seek the easiest situations leading them to become losers. Some people seek self-punishment. The adjustment gradually changes from the normal to become unadjustable. In the first stage, they may not experience a Neurosis or Psychosis but they may suffer from a Non Psychopathic Behaviour Disorder, abnormal behaviour which include five kinds as follows: 1. The Eccentric Group 2. The Inferior Group 3. The Dependent Group 4. The Anti-Social Group 5. The Emotionally Unstable Group

206 People who have above behaviours are mostly able to survive in society though face some problems to live among other people and have imperfect lives. They can help themselves to relax by acting out and still proceed in living out their lives. Psychoanalysis Psychologists express their opinions that people’s behaviours result from heredity and from their experiences gained since birth. It may be considered from people’s biological feature and also process of training in society beginning with families, schools, offices etc. These institutes give experiences and personality. However, Psychologists have accepted that prime period to develop personality is during childhood. If the children are left alone for a long time, their personality will be absolutely changed later. (Kannika Agsornkul Sukasem. 1981: 214)