Summary
"The Graveyard Shift", by Stephen King, is definitely fitting for a horror story. It starts off about how a man, who goes by Hall “or” college boy, is working in a mill at 3 a.m. Warwick, his boss, asks him if he'd like to work extra during the 4th of July week, explaining that he needed to clean out the basement. He also explained that it was a disaster down there, and that no one had touched it in 12 years. Hall agreed to work for him. The only catch was that they would be working the graveyard shift, which didn’t seem to bother Hall at all since he basically already did. They began working that Monday, at 11 p.m. They strung out lights and brought down fire hoses. They even saw rats that were doubled the size of regular rats. The rats almost looked as if they were a mix between a rat and a flying bat. At lunchtime, which was 4 a.m., they talked about how someone had gotten bitten by one of the rats. Everyone seemed spectacle about these mutated rats, but still went back to work. The next encounter the group had with the rats was at 1 a.m. on Wednesday of the 4th of July week. One of the workers, named Carmichael, got bit by a rat. “A huge rat with grey-streaked fur and ugly, glaring eyes had bitten into his shirt and hung there, squeaking and kicking at Carmichael’s belly with its back paws” (6). This 2nd encounter with the mutated rats opened the eyes of most of the workers, and they began to consider quitting the job. After one worker decides to leave, Warwick tells the rest of the workers that if they’re going to leave it’d better be now. None of the workers decided to leave, and they began cleaning. On Thursday at three thirty a.m., they came across a wooden trap door. They opened it and inferred that it led to a sub-basement. Hall explained to Warwick that that was where all of the mutated rats were breeding, and that he would need to hire twenty trained exterminators. He did not believe Hall, and he told him to bring himself, Wisconsky, which was a good friend of Hall, and one other man of their choice. Hall chooses Warwick to come with them, and they head down into the darkness. Wisconsky flees instantly in fear of what lied ahead of them; however, Hall and Warwick carried on their dangerous journey. After reaching the end of the path, they met a hideous monster, the size of twenty rats combined, and attempted to flee, but could not outrun the beast. The workers that were waiting for their return grew impatient after three hours of no return, and send three more workers down to see what was going on.
Why It's HorrorThis story has horror written all over it. First off, this story has giant, unreal creatures, which are made to frighten the characters, and the reader for that matter. Horror is about scaring the reader, and incorporating giant, unreal creatures is going help accomplish that sense of fear in the reader. Another part of horror that is in this story is the setting. The setting in horror stories is very essential to creating an eerie, or creepy atmosphere that gets the reader thinking, without anything even happening. Stephen King does a great job with this in his horror stories, and in this one, it is set in a basement that has not been touched in 12 years, during the graveyard shift.
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Literary Terms3rd Person Limited - King's story is written in 3rd person limited. 3rd person limited is described as when the narrator does not know what all the characters are thinking. For example, in the story, it mentions the thoughts of Hall, but does not mention the thoughts of any of the other characters.
Mood - The mood of the story is how the story makes you feel. Mood is a very good literary term to relate to horror stories, because horror stories are obviously made to scare you. In the story, when it is describing the monster in the sub-basement and how they could not outrun it, the mood portrayed was fear. Flat Character - A flat character is a character in a story that does not have a lot of depth. In other words, this is the type of character that is not explained very well in the story. In "The Graveyard Shift", the workers that came along to help clean out the basement were all flat characters, because King does not describe each and every one of them. Denouement - The denouement is the end of the story. The denouement of this story is when Hall and Warwick die from the monster in the sub-basment, and the group of workers that are left above send 3 more down to see where Hall and Warwick are. The denouement of this story is fairly confusing, because King used a cliffhanger, which allows the reader to come up with his/her own endings. Dynamic Character - A dynamic character is a character that changes throughout the story. A good example of a dynamic character in "The Graveyard Shift", would be Warwick. At the beginning of the story, Warwick seemed like an innocent person that needed help cleaning out the basement under the mill, but as the story goes on, he becomes the antagonist, and Hall has to outsmart Warwick before he tricks Hall. |
Connection to "The Cask Of Amontillado""The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Graveyard Shift" are related in a couple of ways. First off, they are both set at night in a basement for the majority of the story. Also, In both of the stories, death is involved at the end of each stories' plot. However, the death described in "The Cask of Amontillado" is more subtle, while the death in "The Graveyard Shift" is more obvious and action packed at the end when the rat monster chases down Hall and Warwick.
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