FREE ESSAY ON THE STAND

THE STAND

The Stand By Stephen King Stephen King's The Stand is a thrilling novel that portrays the
forces of good against evil. In the year 1991, a plague strikes America, leaving only a
few thousand people alive who are immune to the epidemic. Of the survivors, those who
serve G-d instinctively join in Boulder, Colorado, while those who worship the Dark Man
are drawn to Las Vegas, Nevada. The two groups separately re-build society, until one
must destroy the other. Franni Goldsmith comes very close to killing herself. She thinks
she can not deal with her parents' deaths, being unwed and pregnant, and having the only
other survivor in her hometown of Ogunquit, Main be her recently deceased best friend's
weird brother Harold Lauder. Fran puts aside her personal feelings for Harold aside, and
goes with him to the place in her dreams, to Boulder, Colorado. On their way, they meet
up with six people from various states in the United States who joined them on their
journey. Fran is disturbed by her dreams, as all of them are by their own. She dreams of
an old lady named Abigail, in Colorado. This lady is kind and loving and promises to
protect them from the evil. In the dreams there is also a Dark Man. He is always there
lurking, waiting to attack. Harold admits to himself that he is in love with Fran and
goes crazy when he realizes how serious Fran has become with Stuart Redman, one of the
newcomers to their traveling group. Harold becomes insanely jealous and plots to separate
them, even if it means murder. Harold doesn't admit it to any of them, but his dreams are
different from theirs. In his dreams the Dark Man offers Harold power and respect,
something Harold could never imagine in the past. Harold knows his destiny is to go to
Las Vegas. The group arrives in Boulder, and soon after are joined by over one thousand
others who dreamt of Abigail and this place. They inevitably form a society where they
settled and has meetings to decide what they would do about the Dark Man. Abigail tells
the people that three of them, including Stuart, must be sent to destroy the Dark Man.
Meanwhile Harold secretly leaves with the Dark Man's bride-to-be, Nadine, to Las Vegas.
Harold is ready to kill Stuart, but is killed instead by the will of G-d. Nadine makes it
safely to Las Vegas before Stuart and his two companions are about to be hanged. Out of
the sky the hand of G-d comes and destroys the Dark Man sparing the three men. After much
hardship, Stuart returns to Fran and her newborn son and together they plant the seeds of
a new society. The Stand is a book about human nature. It shows people's inclination
toward good or evil. Mostly, it shows how it is in man's nature to build society and to
fight for his beliefs. I found this book to be extremely entertaining because it was well
written and somewhat realistic, despite it's supernatural aspects. I would recommend this
book for anyone who enjoys roller coasters, horror movies, or a good old fashioned
suspense novel.