The Body, Stephen King – Reading Guide

Background details on the author

This is not a complete biography, but specific details of King’s life that may help you understand
how autobiographical the novella is.

The Body is considered a novella (longer than a short story, shorter than a typical novel), and
Stephen King admits that parts of the story are fairly autobiographical. Stephen Edwin King was
born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine. His parents were Donald Edwin King and Ruth
Pillsbury King. Stephen was their only biological child: his older brother, David, was adopted at birth
two years earlier.

The Kings were the typical family until one night when Stephen’s father said he was stepping out for
cigarettes and was never heard from again. At this point Ruth took over raising the family with help
from other relatives. They travelled throughout many states over several years, finally moving back
to Durham, Maine in 1958.

As a child, King apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train, though he
has no memory of the event. His family told him that after leaving home to play with the boy, King
returned, speechless and seemingly in shock. Only later did the family learn of the friend's death.
Some commentators have suggested that this event may have psychologically inspired King's dark,
disturbing creations, but King himself has dismissed the idea.

Looking back on his high school days, King recalled that "my high school career was totally
undistinguished. I was not at the top of my class, nor at the bottom."

King came of age for military service during the Vietnam War in the 1960’s, and like all young men at
that time, he reported to his local draft board. The examination immediately post-graduation found
him 4-F (physically unfit for military duty) because he had high blood pressure, limited vision, flat
feet, and punctured ear drums. The Army doctor who examined King apparently remarked “You’re a
mess, boy.”

Soon after the release of Carrie in 1974, his mother died of uterine cancer. King has written of his
severe drinking problem at this time, stating that he was drunk while delivering the eulogy at his
mother's funeral.

Central questions to consider when reading The Body:

•
• How does the death of a family member impact a family?
• How do parents impact their children?
• Is it possible to escape one’s reality through the bond of friendship?
• Can friends truly influence and inspire people more than their family members?

Chapter 1
1. React to this quote from this brief chapter:
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 “The most important things are the hardest things to say... words diminish them – words
shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size
when they’re brought out… And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to
have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all…”

Chapter 2
1. In this chapter we meet the four main characters. Identify them and include a brief
description of each.

2. How is it made clear that the narrator is looking back when telling the story?

3. This chapter describes some of the impact a father can have on his child, specifically
his son. It is presumed that the father is a caring and responsible person and role
model. What happens when that isn’t the case or when there is no father? Pay
attention to the father/son relationships described so far in the novel.

Chapter 3
When Gordie hears about death of Ray Brower, he thinks, “Nothing like that could happen in
southwestern Maine today; most of the area has become suburbanized… But in 1960 the whole area
between Chamberlain and Castle Rock was undeveloped, and there were places that hadn’t even
been logged since before World War II. In those days it was still possible to walk into the woods and
lose your direction there and die there.”

1. What connotations do you have for “woods,” what images and ideas come to mind?

2. The name of Gordie’s town, Castle Rock, has a different connotation from the
woods — what might this name symbolize?

Chapter 4
1. Why is Vern Tessio’s nickname “Penny Tessio”?

2. While he was under the porch, what did Vern overhear his brother, Billy, and Charlie
Hogan talking about?

Chapter 5
1. A catalyst in literature is a person or an event that causes things to change (that is, a
stimulus in bringing about a result). How might Vern and the news he brings to the
boys be seen as a catalyst in this story?

2. The clubhouse boys make a plan — describe their plan.

3. Why do they want to tell the police about the body?

4. Why do they think that those who found the body won’t get angry at their telling
the police?

5. What do we know about Chris’s family?

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Chapter 6
1. How does Gordie view his parents? Why?

2. Why does he say that he is an “invisible man”?

3. How does Gordie view his brother? Why?

4. Why does Gordie become a writer?

Chapter 7
1. This chapter is a story within a story — Stud City, one of Gordie’s stories that he
writes in college. This is still part of the narrator’s past, but it’s a “future past.” Why
do you think the story is included here?

Chapter 8
1. In this chapter, the narrator comments on Stud City. Why do you think the short
story is included in the novella, and why does it come at this point in the story?

Chapter 9
1. Foreshadowing: an indication of something that will happen in the future, often
used as a literary device to suggest future plot developments. Foreshadowing is
useful for creating suspense, a feeling of unease, a sense of curiosity, or a mark that
things may not be as they seem. Discuss the gun, what it might signify, and what it
might foreshadow.

2. How does Gordie feel when he takes the gun — and how does he feel after the shot?

3. What is Chris’s reaction?

Chapter 10
1. When the boys are ready to begin their adventure, what is some of the imagery that
points to this? (Be specific: describe Castle Rock and the Castle River.)

2. Why does Teddy want to dodge the train?

3. What did the boys forget to do?

4. What do they decide to do?

Chapter 11
1. The dump is one of Gordie’s most vivid memories of Castle Rock. Why does he compare it to
some surrealist paintings (two of which you can see below)?

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 Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory René Magritte’s Time Transfixed

2. What’s the name of the dump’s manager? What kind of dog is Chopper?

3. What does Chris dream of and what may it reveal about Chris?

4. What does the following quote mean? “Everything was there and around us. We knew
exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand.”

5. In this chapter, there is a reference to a “goocher.” What do you think that means and
why might it be significant? Examine the imagery surrounding it.

Chapter 12
1. Part of growing up is understanding one’s own mortality. What events in Chapter 12
make Gordie more aware of death?

2. Notice that the two adults in this chapter act like children. The adults in the boys’
lives have “fallen off their pedestals” — and realizing this is part of growing up, too.
Besides the vicious fathers in the novel, focus on the beahviour of these two men:
George Dusset and Milo Pressman.

3. What does Milo say that makes Teddy so upset?

Chapter 13
1. Bridges are often symbols in literature and in film. Examine what Teddy does and
what Vern shares before they cross the trestle.

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 2. What does Chris tell Teddy to make him stop crying?

3. Why does Vern say he doesn’t want their journey to be

a “good time”?

4. Describe Vern’s nightmares.

Train on trestle
Chapter 14
1. Describe Gordie’s “first and last psychic flash”.

2. Describe what happens on the train trestle.

Chapter 15
1. According to Gordie, what makes men daredevils?

2. How do Gordie’s friends react to his ability and desire to write stories? Does their
reaction surprise you?

Chapter 16
Allusions and vocabulary in the chapter:

A painting by Jackson Pollock

• Castor oil: a vegetable oil product that, upon ingestion, acts as a laxative. It may
lead to diarrhea and/or vomiting.

• Apogee: the highest point; the peak; the climax.

1. Discuss Gordie’s second story within a story.

2. Does the pie-eating contest story connect to the novella in any way that you can
see?

Chapter 17
1. How do Teddy and Vern react to Gordie’s story? How does Chris react? Why do you
think they feel the way they do about the ending?

2. What advice does Chris give Gordie? And what does he predict will happen if Gordie
doesn’t listen to him?

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 3. Situational irony is when the opposite of what we expect to happen, happens. It
can be as simple as bringing an umbrella outside only to find the sun shining. Or it
can be as dramatic as revealing the killer to be a completely unexpected
character. Pay attention to the ironies in Chris’s tale of the lunch money.

Chapter 18
Allusions in the chapter:
• Algernon Henry Blackwood, (1869 – 1951) was an English writer of fiction dealing
with the supernatural. Although Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his
most typical work tries less to frighten than to create a sense of wonder. He is best
known now as one of the most important authors of ghost stories in the early
twentieth century, perhaps one of the best ever.

1. Notice that Gordie doesn’t want to find Ray Brower’s body near nightfall because
his ghost might be lingering near the body and he says, “there was no way I wanted
to wake up in the night and confront the glowing, disembodied ghost of Ray
Brower, moaning and gibbering and floating among the dark and rustling pines.”
What should this remind you of, and what might that mean?

2. Setting: Notice Gordie’s description of nightfall in the woods: “There’s something

horrible and fascinating about the way dark comes to the woods, its coming
unsoftened by headlights or streetlights or houselights or neon. It comes with no
mothers’ voices, calling for their kids to leave off and come on in now, to herald it. If
you’re used to the town, the coming of the dark in the woods seems more like a
natural disaster than a natural phenomenon…” For kids, what factors make
darkness bearable?

3. Why does Gordie pity Ray Brower besides his being dead?

Chapter 19
Allusions in the chapter:

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal (1945)

• “Mending Wall”: poem by Robert Frost (1874-1963) published in 1914.

1. Discuss Gordie’s dream and what it might mean.

Chapter 20

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 1. Remember that time (the passage of time, the relativity of time) is a motif (a central
or dominant feature) of this novella. Notice the relativity of time when Gordie says,
“[The deer and I] looked at each other for a long time… I think it was a long time.”
How does Gordie react to the deer appearing to him?

Chapter 21
Allusions and vocabulary in the chapter:
• “the power to murder sleep” is an allusion from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth
felt that when he murdered the king, he murdered sleep, because he couldn’t rest.

1. Gordie says, “Whether it was harmless or whether it turned out to have the power to
murder sleep with a hundred mangled dreams, we wanted to see [the body.] I think
that we had come to believe we deserved to see it.” Why might he feel that they
deserved to see the body?

2. Feeling that they deserved to see the body seems to imply some hubris (believing
that you are more important or special than you really are) on the part of Gordie and
the boys. In literature, characters who suffer from hubris are then often victims of
failure, tragedy or loss for them to learn they are not so special. Can you think of an
example from literature or film? What happens to the boys that shows them they
are not that invincible?

3. The appearance of water in the middle of a heat wave would normally symbolize
rebirth, cleansing, or a fresh start. How is the pool that the boys swim in different,
and why might that be?

4. Why does Gordie cry?

5. Explain the following quote: “The only reason anyone writes stories is so they can
understand the past and get ready for some future mortality”.

6. In the last line of this chapter, Gordie repeats the story’s opening line: “The most
important things are the hardest things to say.” Why?

Chapter 22
1. Why does Gordie faint? Why does the leech affect him so much?

Chapter 23
1. The boys discover another impediment to their progress. What is it?

Chapter 24
Allusions in the chapter:
• Ancient Mariner, Gentle Reader, Wedding Guest, “my eye holdeth you in its
spell”: references to the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1798) by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), in which three young men are walking together to a
wedding, when one of them is stopped by an old sailor. The young man is paralyzed
by the ancient mariner’s “glittering eye” and can do nothing but sit on a stone and

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 listen to his strange tale. The mariner tells him that he once sinned when he killed an
innocent albatross (a very large bird) when he was at sea, and he was unable to
escape the lasting punishment of the sinful act. The idea in the poem is that a
thoughtless bad act can have repercussions for a long, long time.

1. Why does King compare himself to the Ancient Mariner and the reader as the
wedding guest?

2. How can you tell that the story is reaching its climax? What information do we gain
at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 25
Allusions and vocabulary in the chapter:
• Setting has been an integral part of this story. Notice how the clouds are building as
we approach the climax of the story. It is after 3 pm, and thunderheads and lightning
appear, the light becomes pearly, their shadows become fuzzy (a dreamlike quality),
birds fly overhead “chattering and crying shrilly” – all omens of what is to come.
Then the wind picks up, the temperature drops ten degrees, and their shadows
disappear. Very Shakespearean!

• After a bolt of lightning and a peal of thunder, a fireball (see below) appears and
speeds along the train tracks. It is almost as if they are being warned not to proceed
any further (or only those who are brave, crazy or determined enough will carry on).
This is when they see the body.

• Fireball: “Ball lightning” may be an atmospheric electrical phenomenon. The term

refers to reports of luminous, usually spherical objects which vary from the size of a
pea to several metres in diameter. They are sometimes associated with
thunderstorms, but unlike lightning flashes, which last only a fraction of a second,
ball lightning reportedly lasts many seconds. They may appear during
thunderstorms, sometimes issuing from a lightning flash, or during calm weather
with no storms in the area. Depending on the report, they can move upwards as well
as downwards, sideways, or in strange trajectories; they have been reported in
many different colours, sometimes even transparent or translucent. The balls are
said to disappear in many different ways. Some accounts say the balls are lethal,
killing on contact, while others claim that they are harmless. You may watch a short
video on the topic here.

1. What imagery does Gordie describe when he first sees the body?

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 2. Interpret the storm (specifically the symbol of the lightning bolt just before Vern
finds the body). How does this imagery make it clear to Gordie that Ray Brower is
really dead and clarify what death means to a 12 year old?

Chapter 26
Vocabulary:
• Ersatz (as in “ersatz tears”): imitation or substitute, usually inferior to the original

1. Who joins the boys at the body?

2. What bothers Gordie most about their arrival and why?

3. What causes Chris to bring out his father’s gun?

4. Explain the meaning of the following quote: “He was wrong to mention Denny.”

Chapter 27
1. When it begins to hail, who stands by Chris and who abandons him?

2. What do the older boys do, and what do they vow to do?

3. Why do you think Chris cries at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 28
1. It’s ironic that after everything they went through, the boys don’t retrieve Ray
Brower’s body. Why don’t they?

2. Describe the significance of the berry bucket.

Chapter 29
1. When do the boys finally get home? How might it be symbolic?

2. What does Gordie find himself unable to say to Chris?

Chapter 30
1. Have things changed for Gordie at home? Explain.

Chapter 31
1. Were any of the parents concerned? Discuss.

Chapter 32
Vocabulary in the chapter:
• Nonpareil: unparalleled, better than any other

1. Discuss what happens to Gordie and his friends once they return.

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 2. How does their friendship change?

Chapter 33
Allusions in the chapter:
• Grendel: the monster killed by Beowulf, a hero from the epic poem “Beowulf”
written in Old English.

1. Discuss the deaths of Vern and Teddy.

2. How does Chris try to change his life and what things get in his way?

3. Discuss how Chris dies.

Chapter 34
1. What is Gordie’s life like as an adult?

2. What is Ace Merrill’s life like?

3. What imagery at the end symbolizes that life still goes on and time still passes?

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