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Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
King, Stephen. Doctor Sleep: A Novel. New York, NY: Gallery, 2013. Print.
This is the sequel to The Shining, it explores the life of Danny Torrance after the death of his father at the Overlook Hotel. He is an adult and was a alcoholic just like his father. He decides to change his life and moves to a small town and attends AA regularly. Meanwhile, a little girl Abra is born and has the same gift as Dan. They communicate telepathically. Maenwhile, there are these vampire like group called The True Knot. They need steam to survive and get it from kids who have the gift like Abra. They are aware of Abra's existence and are now after her for her steam. Dan then tries to help Abra and her family.
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The Struggle Through The Book
At one point in the semester I got so frustrated with this book, I just stopped reading it. I couldn't take it anymore. In my blog I talked about how I missed reading for enjoyment, I really did try to let my guard down for Doctor Sleep, which I thought I did, but ultimately I didn't. Dr. Kopp's comment on the blog really got me thinking. He said " you have to undergo the mimetic experience of the reading first (and fully) before you can read for other registers. You can't leap over that step very easily." I have come to realize I tried to leap over that step. So I went back and tried to undergo the mimetic experience of reading and I couldn't. I just wanted to be able to get past the fantasy of the whole book, and I couldn't. Soul Sucking Vampires do not interest me so I couldn't get past the mimetic step and actually start to analyze the book. In the beginning, the book was fine, I was able to explore some intertextual codes, but as I was about 300 pages in. I started to hate the book. I thought it was going to be similar to The Shining, but even though I did find out what happened to Danny, it was only the first couple chapters, then a whole other plot was introduced.
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Symbolic Code- generates unresolvable questions
The book features many AA quotes and and has Dan making many decisions about his sobriety, his life, and other peoples lives. I concluded that the symbolic code was Right vs. Wrong. He has many choices and the wrong choice could cost him his life or other's lives, the right choice will result in feelings of good.
Dan has to make the difficult choice to stop drinking and face his demons that haunt his life, or keep drinking and hide his fear under alcohol. He makes the right choice to stop drinking and face his demons in AA. His powers are now stronger, of seeing death, but he takes this gift to help people. He takes this gift and works in hospice. He helps people who are on their death bed die with no pain and when they are ready. By making the right choice he saved his life. If he would of not gotten the help he needed, he would still be a deadbeat, and maybe even dead.
Dan has to make the difficult choice to stop drinking and face his demons that haunt his life, or keep drinking and hide his fear under alcohol. He makes the right choice to stop drinking and face his demons in AA. His powers are now stronger, of seeing death, but he takes this gift to help people. He takes this gift and works in hospice. He helps people who are on their death bed die with no pain and when they are ready. By making the right choice he saved his life. If he would of not gotten the help he needed, he would still be a deadbeat, and maybe even dead.
Controlling and Opposing Values
In my blog post on controlling and opposing values, I took the easy way out and believed the controlling and opposing values for Doctor Sleep and The Shining were the same. After identifying the symbolic code, I have realized that I was wrong and that it has to do a lot with right vs. wrong. Not only with Dan's character, but also with Abra. The two face the struggle of doing the right thing vs. the wrong thing which has different consequences. It does however have some similar qualities to The Shining, which does make sense because it is the sequel.
Syllogistic Progressive Form-unfoldong of the steps of an argument
After reading more about this form Burke describes it as, "given certain things, certain things must follow, the premises forcing the conclusion." Even though I did not get to the conclusion, I can tell you of what I think will happen based on this form. After reading one Stephen King novel, I am going to base my prediction on that. It may not be entirely predictable of what is going to happen in the bulk of the text leading up to the conclusion, but the conclusion was pretty clear, In The Shining, I was sure that at the end Danny would be safe, not sure about his father though. So by the evidence of Abra and Dan's prominence in the book, I believe they will be safe in the end. I think that it would be a happy ending with the two. The evidence provided being the experience I had with The Shining of the main characters one being in the wrong and the other just trying to help, the one who is in the wrong dies. The TrueKnot leader, is in the wrong (she is the soul sucking vampire who is trying to kill Abra) so ultimately at the end of the book she will die.