The Use of Diction, Characters, and Setting in Stephen King's Novels

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Before they even pick up a pen, novelists are given a task of giving their book a point. Book readers are often searching for something specific when they pick up a novel: supernatural elements, a romance, or anything else. Having something “different” in a world of the same story being told over and over again helps, but what makes a novel successful is how relatable a novel is to the readers. A theme is unable to be told unless the reader is able to associate themselves with the characters and situations that the author is almost required to set the story up with. One such author is Stephen King, whose real experiences and overwhelming amount of brand-tagging gives him credibility in his writing, making him one of the most popular modern writers of the past few decades. The novelist Stephen King demonstrates the theme of intolerance as seen in his book Carrie through the use of elements such as characters, setting, and diction. The diction King's novels took on were not intentional in the beginning. King began writing novels with horror elements or completely based on the attention other horror novels such as Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby and Wlliam P. Blatty's The Exorcist had received after many of his naturalistic novels had been rejected (Keyishian 30). With this, King's novels changed from a romantic prose to direct rhythms and characterizations. King begins instruction in his book On Writing by instructing not to constrict to a manual of writing a certain way, but by simply writing and seeing what comes structure is able to out of it (McCrillis). The shift in his writing comes from many factors, but most are from letting the structure take on its own course; to not write as his vision sees it beforehand, but to let the wri... ... middle of paper ... ...that King's characters are so thick that the teachers only cared when it was too late. Along with the traditional assets to a fairytale plot, there is also the heroine fighting the battles and problems set before her to become the master of her own kingdom, therefore having the ability to rule her own life – just as Carrie White was able to do (Winter 33). The theme of intolerance is shown through all these points in King's writing and more. Readers feel Carrie's pain and accept it as their own. They remember numerous points in their own lives where they had been hurt just as she had. They may even try to reflect on other views than their own after seeing what happened to both Carrie and the ones around her. What King actually manages to do to show off his themes is create a novel that gives the readers exactly what they know. The scariest part of life is reality.

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