The Passive Voice In Stephen King's The Body

Although prolific writer Stephen King is best known for horror novels such as Carrie and It, many say that his best work is his book about writing, aptly titled On Writing. On Writing is an instruction book of sorts. In it King explains his own life experience as a writer and gives advice to aspiring writers on how to hone their skills. He covers everything from his own Many professional writers say that they have followed the advice of Stephen King, but does Stephen King follow his own advice in his own works? Specifically, does he follow his own advice in his short story “The Body?”

“The Body” is a story about four boys who go on an adventure in search of a dead body, and how the boys change and mature in the process. After reading both

The active voice is when the subject of the sentence is doing whatever the verb says. He says that the He says that most beginning writers write in the passive voice. The passive voice is when the subject of the sentence is not doing what the verb is saying. “Unsure writers feel that passive voice somehow lends their works authority.”(On Writing 123) According to King, many writers feel that putting off the placement of the verb makes the writing somehow sound more professional. He says that this is perhaps because documents like instruction manuals use primarily passive tense verbs. King says that this view is a fallacy. According to King, the passive voice actually sounds passive and timid, and takes away from the authority the writer has.

However, when I read “The Body”, I found that Stephen King does not always use the active voice. Even though the majority of “The Body” is written in the active voice, there are parts of it that are written in the passive voice. Sometimes it is used for dramatic effect, such as the scene with the leeches. “When his legs were up in the air I saw that they were covered in blackish-grey lumps, just like the one I had seen on Chris’ shoulder. They were leeches.” (The Body, 48) The revelation of what the lumps are is postponed until the end of the sentence so that the reader becomes more and more

At first, this specific point seems hard to quantify. How is one supposed to measure the amount of his own style that the author puts into the piece of work? However, there are some things demonstrated in “The Body” that readers would be hard-pressed to find from any other writer. In one of the final scenes, it begins to hail as the boys encounter the body. As the hail falls, the boys realize in horror that the hail is sinking into the dead boys eye sockets. “Ray Browers eyes had become wide and white, as if he was staring blindly. His eyes had filled up with round, white hailstones.” (The Body, 64) This is told sparsely and without any explicit or graphic imagery, but it still haunts the reader. Although it is not a horror story, the eerie detail stands out. King has left his indelible