The Stand Essay, Research Paper

Stephen King’s The Stand is a thrilling novel that portrays

the forces of good against evil. In the year 1991, a plague

strikes America, leaving only a few thousand people alive

who are "immune" to the epidemic. Of the survivors, those

who serve G-d instinctively join in Boulder, Colorado, while

those who worship the "Dark Man" are drawn to Las

Vegas, Nevada. The two groups separately re-build society,

until one must destroy the other. Franni Goldsmith comes

very close to killing herself. She thinks she can not deal with

her parents’ deaths, being unwed and pregnant, and having

the only other survivor in her hometown of Ogunquit, Main

be her recently deceased best friend’s weird brother Harold

Lauder. Fran puts aside her personal feelings for Harold

aside, and goes with him to the place in her dreams, to

Boulder, Colorado. On their way, they meet up with six

people from various states in the United States who joined

them on their journey. Fran is disturbed by her dreams, as all

of them are by their own. She dreams of an old lady named

Abigail, in Colorado. This lady is kind and loving and

promises to protect them from the evil. In the dreams there

is also a "Dark Man". He is always there lurking, waiting to

attack. Harold admits to himself that he is in love with Fran

and goes crazy when he realizes how serious Fran has

become with Stuart Redman, one of the newcomers to their

traveling group. Harold becomes insanely jealous and plots

to separate them, even if it means murder. Harold doesn’t

admit it to any of them, but his dreams are different from

theirs. In his dreams the "Dark Man" offers Harold power

and respect, something Harold could never imagine in the

past. Harold knows his destiny is to go to Las Vegas. The

group arrives in Boulder, and soon after are joined by over

one thousand others who dreamt of Abigail and this place.

They inevitably form a society where they settled and has

meetings to decide what they would do about the "Dark

Man". Abigail tells the people that three of them, including

Stuart, must be sent to destroy the "Dark Man". Meanwhile

Harold secretly leaves with the "Dark Man’s" bride-to-be,

Nadine, to Las Vegas. Harold is ready to kill Stuart, but is

killed instead by "the will of G-d". Nadine makes it safely to

Las Vegas before Stuart and his two companions are about

to be hanged. Out of the sky "the hand of G-d" comes and

destroys the "Dark Man" sparing the three men. After much

hardship, Stuart returns to Fran and her newborn son and

together they plant the seeds of a new society. The Stand is

a book about human nature. It shows people’s inclination

toward good or evil. Mostly, it shows how it is in man’s

nature to build society and to fight for his beliefs. I found this

book to be extremely entertaining because it was well

written and somewhat realistic, despite it’s supernatural

aspects. I would recommend this book for anyone who

enjoys roller coasters, horror movies, or a good old

fashioned suspense novel.