An Empirical Study of Horror in Stephen King’s The Stand

Abstract

Modern horror fiction would not be complete without the landmark works and ideas of author Stephen King. According to the famous critic Hank Wagner the universe of Stephen King is an incredible place of grotesque terror, dark magic and fearsome wonder, a great multiverse conjured from one individual’s imagination. That’s why Stephen King is known as the modern American writer of contemporary horror fiction whose books are widely sold and acknowledged. We can experience all these aspects in the novel The Stand written by Stephen King. The novel The Stand is best described as epic fantasy and this novel is compared with the fantasy novels of J. R. R. Tolkien and E. R. Eddison as well as Milton’s Paradise Lost, Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. The Stand is apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic novel. The Stand talks about the modern mythology, painting the conflict between good and evil. However the main theme of this novel The Stand is not about the flu but the author King who focuses on the world after this modern Black Plague. The highlight of this novel is the war among the good and the evil. This is characterized by Christian theology and outside forces of unnamed fate. King puts forward serious issues of the human condition and human nature as he establishes the framework of his narrative, illustrating his ability to tell an engaging story and makes readers to think about the potential future of mankind. I hope that this research paper will lend new insight to the study of The Stand.