Firestarter

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1980

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Fire

Content Warning: The novel displays severe fatphobia.

Fire represents power and its pursuit. The Shop is trying to harness power and to develop Charlie’s ability into a weapon. Charlie is deemed significant for her capacity to direct an otherwise uncontrollable force.

The Shop’s efforts result in death. This suggests another aspect of fire: its inherent destructiveness. At the beginning of the novel, Charlie’s ability makes her feel guilty and weighs heavily on her psyche

Fire is chaotic, neutral power that cannot be harnessed. Even Charlie, after her massacre at the Shop, realizes that she contains a power she cannot fully control. Recognizing this reflects her awareness and how she has come of age as she recognizes the uncontrollability of fire, whereas the adults in her life believed they could fully control fire through her.

Black Horse

The symbol of the black horse has two different functions. Black horses, traditionally viewed as bearers of nightmares, are common symbols in Gothic horror. They often signify the unconscious mind and the power that it contains. Initially, the black horse is a malignant agent that brings on Andy’s brain hemorrhaging and subsequent incapacitation. The thumping of his head is compared to the galloping of hooves.

Necromancer is another black horse, one that Charlie is allowed to grow close to through Rainbird’s intervention. Necromancer is the first being to care for Charlie without an agenda. It comes to represent both strength and freedom, which is evident in Charlie’s prophetic dream about the conflagration in the stables. Charlie’s vision of riding of Necromancer through the flames into a larger sense of herself symbolizes her journey out of childhood. Charlie is astride the horse, in control of its vast power and of her own. This suggests how she has come of age.

The deaths of the horses in the stables set Charlie off. She is only able to access the depths of her pyrokinetic ability when the symbol of her freedom is struck down. In this case, the black horse acts as a catalyst for Charlie to discover the true reaches of her independency as she matures.

Weight

King writes with a severe bias toward fatness. He often uses weight to characterize minor characters, particularly in a way that suggests a personality defect. Many minor characters described as “fat” are depicted as slovenly, or of being secondary to and less healthy than other characters. This can be seen in King’s depictions of Mrs. Gurney or Louis Tranter, who serve merely supportive roles in the narrative.

Mrs. Gurney becomes a symbol in Andy’s mind and less of a person. Due to her weight, she symbolizes lack of will for Andy, who is preoccupied with self-control. In general, King implies that fat characters don’t have enough self-control or willpower to alter their bodies. Mrs. Gurney’s supposed lack of will is something that Andy fights against when weaning himself off Thorazine.

Weight also provides Andy with opportunity. Andy is able to harness fatness, and the cultural stigma against it, to make a living while on the run. King suggests the opportunities for this are boundless in America, echoing a biased cultural sentiment that America is morally deteriorating, and thus contains an “excessive” amount of fatness to reflect this perceived moral decay. King’s use of fatness to serve as a contrast to the high willpower of Andy and Charlie relies on cultural paranoia and misconceptions about weight.