Everybody knows the master of mystery novels, Mr.
Stephen King. His literature works has fascinated the whole world and he has
never failed to scare the wits out of us all. As an avid fan of his works, I
felt the burning desire to make an analysis of one of its amazing novels, Under
the Dome.
PLOT
Set in
Chester’s Mill, a small town in Maine, “Under the Dome” is a 1074 pages
novel about the mysterious appearance of a dome (hence the name) which
separates the town from the outside world. The book is definitely not for the
faint hearted as it depicts numerous gory accidents that are caused by the
sudden materialisation of the invisible force field, such as a plane crash, car
explosions and many others, as well as the ones that occur inside the dome due
to various reasons (no spoilers!), all of them being extremely bloody and messy
(after all, Stephen King IS the master of contemporary horror literature!).
Also, some readers might find the foul language and sexual content quite
disturbing, so be warned. Nevertheless, this doesn’t change a bit the greatness
of this book!
While the plot itself appears to be intriguing, yet
very simple, I can assure you there’s more to this book than it seems at a
first look. King describes in a realistic way how the inhabitants of The Mill
cope with the inability to get out of the town, as well as the loss of contact
with friends and relatives from “the outside”. They have to start saving up
their remaining resources and use them wisely in order to survive as long as
they can until the American Government and the Military manage to remove the
dome. But that’s not all, as King sprinkles the storyline with loads of plot
twists and slow discoveries of each character’s deepest secrets, which will
surely keep you on the edge of your seat!
CHARACTERS
As you would expect from such a long piece of writing,
the number of characters is quite hefty, but don’t worry; at the beginning of
the book there’s both a map of Chester’s Mill and a list of the most important
characters in the book, which I though was a really cool addition to a novel!
What’s interesting and unique about this book is that the story does not
revolve around one main character, but instead it combines the perspectives of
many characters in order to give the reader an insight into their views of the
incident, as well as their personalities. In the spotlight we have Dale
Barbara, a military veteran and a short-order cook at a local restaurant, who
is suddenly reintroduced into the military in order to solve the problem of the
dome from inside and maintain peace in The Mill. As the story develops, he
receives help from Julia Shumway, the town newspaper owner, Eric “Rusty”
Everett, a nurse at Chester’s Mill’s only hospital and his wife Linda, Brenda
Perkins, the wife of the chief of police, Jackie Wettington, a police officer
and three teenagers that aid him in his mission. However, as every other story,
there are also some bad guys, the main antagonists being James “Big Jim”
Rennie, the Second Selectman of the town and his son, Junior.
In terms of complexity of the characters, they aren’t
extremely complex, nor do they go through a psychological development. They can
be easily categorised into “good” and “bad” and they only seem to revolve around
one particular characteristic. However, there is one character that
distinguishes herself from the others and that is Andrea Grinnel, the Third
Selectman, who changes from a drug addict to a strong and fierce woman.
PERSONAL IMPRESSION
Overall, the book was absolutely fantastic and after
reading it I finally understood why Stephen King is considered to be one of the
best writers. As an aspirant writer myself, I was mostly impressed by how he
manages to create such a kaleidoscopic plot by joining every character’s view
on a single event. Also, his unlimited imagination, the way he describes every
little detail and how he strategically places a plot twist when you least
expect it is absolutely fantastic! One thing that disappointed me though was
the ending, as I found it a little bit…softer (probably not the best way to
describe it) and not as interesting as the rest of the book; it definitely
wasn’t foreseeable, but I felt like it didn’t quite fit the rest of the novel,
which was spine tingling and dripping with mystery. I’m not saying it was bad
,but I would’ve expected something to top off all the other plot twists!
All in all, “Under the Dome” is definitely one of the
best horror and mystery novels I’ve read so far and it sure has made me eager
to read other works of Stephen King! If you’re an avid reader of mystery books
filled with plot twists and supernatural elements, then I wholeheartedly
recommend this book to you!
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