Needful Things: Difference between revisions

 

 

The story mainly revolves around Sheriff Alan Pangborn and his attempts to find out just what is going on in his town.

Made into a movie in 1993 starring Max Von Sydow as Gaunt and Ed Harris as Sheriff Pangborn.

 

* [[Affably Evil]]: Leland Gaunt on his good days.

* [[The Alcoholic]]: Hugh Priest.

* [[Berserk Button]]: Don't call Danforth Keeton "Buster." Just...don't.

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Nettie {{spoiler|and possibly Polly, near the end.}}

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|Gaunt is defeated, but by then, most of Castle Rock is destroyed. Also, he starts the whole thing again in another town}}.

* [[Black Comedy]]: There's an unnerving cartoonish quality to many of the deadly pranks Gaunt has his customers carry out, even ''once'' the bodies start piling up.

* [[Bloodier and Gorier]]: In both the book and the movie, Nettie comes home after playing her prank on Buster Keeton to find that {{spoiler|her dog, Raider}}, has been killed. The book has him "merely" getting impaled with a corkscrew, but in the movie, {{spoiler|Raider}} was {{spoiler|skinned alive and hung up in Nettie's closet}}.

* [[Book Ends]]: {{spoiler|The story starts with a narrator who greets the reader and talks about the people in Castle Rock and the new shop. At the end, a narrator greets the reader in another small town, where a new shop is about to open...}}

* [[Corrupt Politician]]: "Buster" Keeton, who started stealing from the town's funds to cover his gambling addiction.

** {{spoiler|The town seen in the epilogue}} is from the King novella ''The Library Policemen'', which appeared in the same collection as ''The Sun Dog''.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|the Tastee-Munch Can and the folding flower trick.}}

* [[Conspiracy Theorist]]: Keeton believes that "Them", a shadowy group of authority figures is after him. What is actually after him is the Bureau of Taxation, because he's stealing from the town's funds.

* [[Deadly Prank]]: Part of the payment for every item Gaunt sells in the titular shop. Most of them do not directly result in the death of any person or animal, but the combination of all of the "pranks" lead to multiple murders and suicides.

* [[Devil in Plain Sight]]: Mr. Gaunt, who uses his [[Affably Evil|affability]] to his advantage. At first, even the reader is led to believe that he is just a nice guy who owns a little shop that has anything a person would desire and is willing to sell you the thing you desire for a bargain and the only ones who would think otherwise are readers familiar with Stephen King's formula. There are also multiple hints that he is up to no good and may not even be human even from the beginning, yet no one {{spoiler|except Brian, and the only one he tells is his little brother before he [[Ate His Gun|shoots himself]] [[Harmful to Minors|right in front of him,]]}} realizes that he's a malign influence until after bodies start piling up.

* [[Domestic Abuse]]: "Buster" Keeton verbally and emotionally abuses his wife, Myrtle, though he doesn't hurt her physically {{spoiler|until he goes completely insane and beats her to death with a hammer}}. Nettie Cobb's husband was a brutal [[Domestic Abuser]], and she eventually killed him. Wilma Jerzyck specializes in utterly breaking down her husband's spirit.

* [[Doorstopper]]

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Brian Rusk, Gaunt's first customer, when he sees that the pranks he did on Gaunt's order indirectly led to the deaths of Wilma and Nettie. Sally Ratcliffe also does herself in. Norris Ridgewick attempts suicide for similar reasons, but changes his mind.}}

* [[Embarrassing Nickname]]: "Buster" Keeton hates his nickname.

* [[For the Evulz]]: Gaunt at one point muses that there is no real point to what he's doing anymore. He simply doesn't need any more souls than he already has. But it sure is fun.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: One of the main conflicts is between the Catholics and the Baptists of the town, because the Catholics want to hold a "Casino Nite", and the Baptist minister fiercely opposes this, because (though he doesn't admit it) his father was a gambling addict who eventually killed himself.

* [[The Gambling Addict]]: "Buster" Keeton, one of the town's selectmen is addicted to gambling at the horse tracks, and started embezzling to cover the costs.

* [[Genre Blindness]]: Most of the town. They spend a week playing mean-spirited tricks on people they don't know for reasons they don't understand... not a one of them (except - belatedly - {{spoiler|Polly and Eddie}}) imagines that the mean-spirited tricks played on ''them'' might have a similar source.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Sheriff Pangborn. He has been in a King [[The Dark Half|novel]] before, after all. Gaunt actually seems to sense this about Pangborn, and avoids interacting with him until the novel's climax.

* [[Harmful to Minors]]: Eleven year old Brian Rusk plays a {{spoiler|seemingly}} harmless prank on Wilma Jerzyk {{spoiler|that consists of throwing mud on her clean sheets and results in her and Nettie Cobb killing each other. He hears of their deaths and the role of the muddied sheets in their deaths and the guilt drives him to commit suicide in his garage}} in front of his seven year old brother.

* [[Hate Plague]]: Gaunt's influence makes the townspeople more agressive, to the point that they are willing to commit murder over pranks. {{spoiler|When he's finally defeated, all fighting stops immediately.}}

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]

* [[Lonely Doll Girl]]: Myrtle Keeton likes to be alone with the dolls she collects because they don't call her stupid, unlike her husband.

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Gaunt is like [[Othello|Iago]] on a large scale. He takes the already existing grudges between the townspeople and makes them worse with his pranks, until they kill each other.

* [[Mercy Kill]]: {{spoiler|Ace does this to Buster, after Norris shoots him in the stomach.}}

* [[Mistaken for Cheating]]: Non-comedic example. Gaunt manipulates both Sally Ratcliffe and Lester Pratt (who are engaged to each other) to believe that the other one is cheating. {{spoiler|This eventually causes their deaths}}.

* [[Mutual Kill]]: Several examples.

* [[Nervous Wreck]]: Nettie is always tense and jumpy due to the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband. Keeton also gradually becomes this as paranoia sets in.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Unusually, a future one (only in the movie):

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Alan Pangborn, and even he is very nearly caught up in Gaunt's treachery.

* [[Paranoia Gambit]]: Gaunt basically pulls a huge one on the entire town. Everyone is assigned to pull a [[Deadly Prank|"prank"]] on someone they have no particular attachment to, positive or negative. Everyone on the receiving end thinks the prank was done by their worst enemy, and sets out for revenge on the wrong person.

* [[Pretentious Latin Motto]]: The shop has this motto on the wall: I DO NOT ISSUE REFUNDS OR MAKE EXCHANGES CAVEAT EMPTOR! (Latin for "let the buyer beware".)

* [[Pride]]: Polly's [[Fatal Flaw]] {{spoiler|and what Gaunt uses to turn her against [[The Hero|Pangborn]]. She eventually snaps out of it.}}

* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: {{spoiler|Buster Keaton in the film.}}

* [[Slasher Smile]]: Mr. Gaunt does this in private after he sells Brian the Sandy Koufax baseball card. Just one of the multiple hints that he is a [[Devil in Plain Sight]] and possibly the most obvious of the early ones.

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]: Gaunt.

* [[Soul Jar]]: Gaunt collects the souls of people who died because of him, and somehow traps them in a valise.

* [[The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday]]: Somewhat subverted, as the building itself ''was'' there yesterday and will be there tomorrow: it's run as a perfectly normal small town curio store, complete with "coming soon" signs before the grand opening and regular business hours. ''(Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment.)'' Less suspicious that way.

* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: Used in-universe; most people who buy their personal "needful thing" from Gaunt become too obsessed with protecting and guarding it to ever use it in the manner intended. It's implied that this is by design, lest someone else [[Glamour Failure|see and point out]] {{spoiler|that their treasure is really junk. Unfortunately, this trend doesn't hold true when Gaunt starts selling guns...}}

* [[Treasure Map]]: Ace buys a [[Treasure Map]] from Gaunt to his uncle's fortune. At least that's what he thinks.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Horror Literature]]