Childhood as the hero : the triumph of child protagonists in Stephen King's the shining, doctor sleep and it

• Main Author: Gan, Pin Hui
• Other Authors: Barrie Wayne Sherwood
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature::American
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/70254
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Horror writer Stephen King employs child protagonists in his novels The Shining and It and places unhelpful adult characters in their way as they struggle to overcome malevolent paranormal forces. Isolated in their fight against evil, the children demonstrate the importance of being a child in order to pass King's ultimate test for his protagonists - that of defeating the supernatural horrors that are stalking the pages. Meanwhile, adult protagonist Dan Torrance in King's novel, Doctor Sleep, manages to access the childhood state of mind through his niece. This allows him to prevail against his paranormal nemeses in the book, proving that in King’s fictional worlds, no matter the age of his protagonists or how they achieve their victories, childhood always emerges as the hero in the end.