The ABC’s Of Stephen King : Gage Creed

Spoilers contained!

Carry on with caution.

I recently re-read Pet Sematary and I have to say that Gage got to me a lot harder now, as a parent, than it did when I read the book as a teenager. I think it goes without saying that our kids are the center of everything for us and we want nothing more than to do right by them and protect them from anything that might happen. Reading the scene from the book in which he is killed is so gripping and it rips my heart into pieces just trying to imagine what it would be like, as a parent to have something like that happen in front of you. The moment where Louis lunges for his son in one last ditch, desperate attempt to save his son’s life and has the sensation of his fingers brushing against the back of his shirt is like a gut punch. Seriously, it almost makes me tear up, just typing it. The book is so powerful for that very reason. It’s hard enough to watch a character on a downward spiral towards madness and reading it again, it isn’t hard for me to imagine why Stephen King lists this as one of his least favorite books. In fact, were it not for the need to satisfy a contractual obligation, this book may have never seen the light of day.

Gage has become somewhat of an icon in the Stephen King universe, likely due to the screen adaptation and the actor who played him. There are any number of pictures out there or fan art depicting him, a snarl frozen on his face, perhaps clutching a scalpel in that tiny little hand. To me, what Gage represents is the engine behind what ultimately drives Louis Creed to do some of the most unimaginable things and at the same time, makes the most absurd acts make sense in a dark, twisted fashion. I think that King’s greatest achievement with this book is to really put me into that story and force me to admit that I’m not entirely sure what I would do.

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