the stand :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  King, Stephen. The Stand. New York: New York, 1978   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  tephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine He was a surprise to the family because his mother was told that she would never have children. His parents, Donald and Nellie King, were having trouble in their marriage, and when Stephen King was only 2, his father, a door to door salesman for a company, left the house to buy a pack of cigarettes, but never returned. Stephen King hasn't seen his father since.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stephen and his adopted older brother, David King, lived with their mother back and forth between Massachusetts and Maine. And his passion for writing came about in 1959 when he wrote articles in his brothers local newspaper titled Daves Rag. Copied on a mimeograph machine, and with a circulation of only 20 or so Stephen wrote articles. Inspired by the relative success, Stephen copied some of his short stories and sold them to local people for a whole thirty cents. Stephen actually sold some of his work at school until teachers stopped it. And that’s how he started his carrier in writing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The setting of the story takes place in 1991 in America. A plague struck the U.S. only leaving a few thousand survivors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the year 1991, a plague strikes America, leaving only a few thousand people alive who are immune to the epidemic. Of the survivors, those who serve G-d instinctively join in Boulder, Colorado, while those who worship the Dark Man are drawn to Las Vegas, Nevada. The two groups separately rebuild society, until one must destroy the other. Franni Goldsmith comes very close to killing herself. She thinks she can not deal with her parents' deaths, being unwed and pregnant, and having the only other survivor in her hometown of Ogunquit, Main be her recently deceased best friend's weird brother Harold Lauder. On their way, they meet up with six people from various states in the United States who joined them on their journey. Fran is disturbed by her dreams, as all of them are by their own. She dreams of an old lady named Abigail, in Colorado. This lady is kind and loving and promises to protect them from the evil. In the dreams there is also a Dark Man. He is always t here lurking, waiting to attack. Harold admits to himself that he is in love with Fran and goes crazy when he realizes how serious Fran has become with Stuart Redman, one of the newcomers to their traveling group.