ipl-logo

Criticism Of Stephen King

1816 Words8 Pages

“People must think that I am a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk” (Stephen King). Stephen King: father, husband, most famous horror writer of all time. With many successful books, Stephen King has quickly made himself the most renowned author of the horror genre and can prove it from the countless awards he has received like the British Fantasy Award, Edgar Grand Master Award, and Goodreads Choice Awards Best Fiction. Because so many of his books are successful, many of them have been adapted into mini series on television or even into movies. Most notably the screen adaptations for The Shining (1980) and It (1990 and 2017) are what most people immediately think about. …show more content…

While most people enjoy King’s unsettling way of writing, some criticize him for the disturbingness he brings into his novels. With all of Stephen King’s success and controversy it is hard for people not to be influenced by what he says and writes. Stephen King has changed the way people view writing and the horror genre in general. Stephen King, one of the most criticized and iconic authors to date, had and still has a lasting impact on American culture. Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. Growing up without a father, King did not have the happiest childhood, but as K.S. Coddon says in his article, “This is where King obtained his inspiration to start writing.” King was only seven when he started copying different comic …show more content…

With Stephen King’s many successful works, he has single-handedly changed the way people perceive the horror genre. People do not read King for just entertainment, people read King to face their fears. King writes from his personal experiences which is what makes his horror so thrilling because to a point, his writing is realistic. An article called Criticism of Stephen (Edwin) King states, “If someone in the future wants to see what American life was like, what Americans cared about, what our stories were in the seventies and eighties, they’ll read Stephen King” (2003). The article even claims that in 50 years Stephen King will be regarded as “the dominant literary figure of the time” (2003). With over 30 awards for his writing, Stephen King has become one of the most successful writers in modern time and because of this he has made a lasting impact in the world of

Show More
Related
685 Words | 3 Pages

He would use a lot of imagery and detail in his writing to scare the audience even more, for example, ‘hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them…” (Edwards

Read More
1831 Words | 8 Pages

Stephen King is widely known as a master or horror stories. His chilling thriller, ‘Salem’s Lot captures the attention of even the bravest readers, and pull them into a story so addicting and horrific, they have no choice but to continue. In his novel, King manifests expressive descriptive details and subtle foreshadowing, but also includes puzzling, untimely and ambiguous flashbacks. Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine on September 21st, 1947.

Read More
669 Words | 3 Pages

He is a person who has overcome adversity and therefore has grit. Stephen King’s father left his family without warning when Stephen King was a young boy. His first novel, The Long Walk, was rejected and he took the rejection hard, but kept writing. He started writing his novel, The Dark Tower, but the expenses of writing were too much for him to pay. King submitted his novel Carrie to 30 publishers and got rejected each time.

Read More
1374 Words | 6 Pages

There are many people who enjoy watching horror movies and many others who hate horror movies; personally, I’m one of those people who just dislikes horror movies. Both Stephen King and Chuck Klosterman have similar opinions on why we watch horror movies which is for that electrifying feeling. As well as, both Stephen King and Chuck Klosterman analyses differently why we watch horror movies. As King states that we are all mentally ill which is true. We all build up anger and frustration that creates an insane side of us.

Read More
1999 Words | 8 Pages

When a person picks up a Horror Novel for the first time, they have no idea what is in store for them. Certainly they know the book will be quote unquote “scary”, but of course it will be scary. The sole purpose of that book is to scare the reader. Many horror books attempt but are unable to scare the reader, or if they do scare the reader, the book is not very well written. The three books that this essay is focusing on all do a brilliant job of not only terrifying the reader, but also using and exploiting many literary devices that make the book stick in the reader's memory.

Read More
677 Words | 3 Pages

Stephen King is one of the most successful authors when the genre is horror stories. With that being said many of his books have went on to become really popular movies, for example the likes of “Carrie”,” It” and many more. In the Why We Crave Horror Movies article, King expresses that horror novels are essentially an important human need. He also is trying to tell us that it okay if you need to vent to the dark side because those desires (unacceptable) are present in everyone.

Read More
911 Words | 4 Pages

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine on September 21, 1947 (Pr. 13) He was the second child (222). At age two, his father left (526). He started submitting short stories to Newspapers at age twelve (1021). His lived a life that would be described as the “American Dream” (1)

Read More
259 Words | 2 Pages

Stephen King is an author who came from humble beginnings but, became famous through his passion for horror and writing. King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947. As a young child, King loved spine-chilling comic books and science-fiction movies with monsters. Later on, King sent his strange short stories to science-fiction magazines during high school. None of these stories were published.

Read More
777 Words | 4 Pages

Stephen King shows that not all families are strong, and that sometimes, no matter how hard the protagonist tries, there are certain horrors in the world that can tear a family apart and keep them apart. To begin, Stephen Edwing King, was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine to his parents, Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. He later graduated from the University of Maine and then

Read More
1548 Words | 7 Pages

King experienced trauma at a very young age when his parents split up, this caused Stephen and his brother David to divide their time between Indiana and Connecticut. Although, King would still write in his free time. One if the most influential writers of the twentieth century was Stephen King, and his works continue to have an impact on American Culture today. Stephen King was born in 1942 during the post World War II of United States history. This age influenced King throughout his life, especially in writing.

Read More
1714 Words | 7 Pages

Stephen King has changed the way people view horror by bringing in factors to show horror in a way that has never been seen before. “King’s writing has always displayed significant literary qualities, particularly ongoing literary themes that have shaped how we understand horror as well as ourselves” (Romano). Stephen King mad a big impact when he changed the way the characters act. “He [King] can do this because his boys and men tend to be nerds and outcasts who already exist outside traditional masculine norms. The bookish nerdy kid is relatively uncommon in mainstream adult fiction before King came along; now we recognize such characters as hallmarks of genre literature” (Romano).

Read More
1497 Words | 6 Pages

Fear plays a big part in everyone’s lives. While not everyone will admit it, everyone is scared of something. There is a lot that isn’t known about the world and everything in it. For some this is a tool that can be used to develop horror in literature as well as many other things. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

Read More
1344 Words | 6 Pages

Stephen King, American author, writes about every nightmare producing topic imaginable, and Stephen King is one of the best horror fiction novelists, who has written the greatest horror fiction novels of the twentieth and twenty first century. Stephen King has been living in Maine for the majority of his life. Maine is the setting most often

Read More
649 Words | 3 Pages

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality”-Edgar Allan Poe. All great horror stories represent that quote. There is one story that does not. “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs is not a horror story because there is not a monster, it is not believable, and it does not have a creepy setting. Classic horror stories usually have some sort of a monster in it, whether the monster is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Frankenstein.

Read More
1053 Words | 5 Pages

“The Boogeyman” is a short story written by Stephen King. The short story can be found in his horror story collection “Night Shift.” The main character in this story is a man called Lester Billings, a young man from Waterbury, Connecticut. He works at an industrial firm in New York, he is divorced and a father of three de-ceased children.

Read More

More about Criticism Of Stephen King

Related Topics

Open Document