Paternal Archetypes: the Shining, Pet Sematary, Apt Pupil

Abstract

Stephen King’s fiction is filled with many examples of negative fathers. Without warning or apparent provocation, King’s own biological father, Donald, abandoned the family one night when Stephen was two years old and was never seen or heard from again by his family. The absence of a positive father in his life may have shaped King’s attitude toward creating fictional fathers, as King’s patriarchs are, generally speaking, benignly indifferent at best, abusive and self-destructive at worst. Most are representative of adulthood’s worst inclinations—selfish, secretive, and manipulative. Several of the cinemagraphic fathers from films made of King’s narratives likewise underscore a fundamental thesis that can be traced throughout King’s oeuvre: The most treacherous formulations of sin, and certainly their most pervasive designs, are male-generated and sustained. King’s portrayal of evil most often appears to require an active, illicit bond between a male (often in the role of a father or father surrogate) and a younger, formerly innocent individual (often in the role of biological or surrogate progeny) who is initiated into sin. And this is a pattern that is repeated in work as diverse as Dolores Claiborne and Pet KeywordsBurial GroundTanker TruckHistory LessonSupernatural AgencyHorror FilmThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.