government, so it makes sense that this particular dread plays a prominent role in his work. King came of age in the 1960s, a prime time for distrust of the U.S. In their eyes, Charlie and people like her had the potential to be the greatest weapons the United States government ever wielded, and that meant bringing her in by any means necessary. Charlie was a firestarter from the beginning of her life, and that meant The Shop wanted her. When dosed with the mysterious 'Lot 6' drug, Andy developed a telepathic persuasion ability, while his future wife developed telekinesis.īoth parents found their gifts had major limitations, but their daughter Charlie had no such apparent restraints. But in Firestarter, King emphasized the fundamental fear that people in power can't be trusted by creating The Shop, a secretive organization which conducted MK-Ultra style experiments on a group of young adults, including Charlie's eventual parents, Andy and Victoria. In his previous novels about gifted people, the abilities were apparently latent, things the characters were born with. But when it came to writing pyrokinetic little Charlie McGee, King added the ingredient of deep, paranoid terror that comes from knowing that the very people you were taught would help you if you ever get into trouble, the people in charge of not just your house, but of everything, can't be trusted. Carrie White and Danny Torrance had to face bullies and dangerous parents, and those are scary enough.

He's also always had a sweet spot for kids in peril, from Danny Torrance to Jack Sawyer in The Talisman to poor little Tad Trenton in Cujo.įirestarter, King's 1980 science fiction/horror novel, blends each of these thematic ingredients with one of his other hallmarks, something that crept into things like The Stand and eventually took prominence in The Dead Zone: A distrust of governmental authority figures.

Of the first 10 novels the legendary author published after his 1974 debut, four of them feature a protagonist with some kind of mental superpower, whether it's telekinesis in Carrie, the ability to see ghosts in The Shining, or clairvoyance in The Dead Zone. Stephen King has always been fascinated by people with strange and often dangerous mental gifts.

Firestarter a novel book