The Body is a novella by Stephen King, originally published in the 1982 collection Different Seasons. It is subtitled "Fall from Innocence". For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A novella is a narrative work of prose fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. ... Different Seasons (1982) is a novella collection by Stephen King containing the following stories: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (subtitled: Hope Springs Eternal) Apt Pupil (subtitled: Summer of Corruption) The Body (subtitled: Fall From Innocence) The Breathing Method (subtitled: A Winters Tale) Three movies, The Shawshank Redemption (based on... ANThology is the first major label album by Alien Ant Farm released on March 6, 2001 in the USA and March 19, 2001 in the UK. // Their first single, Smooth Criminal, was a cover of Michael Jacksons song Smooth Criminal, which started to bring popularity to the band. ... Viking Press was founded on March 1, 1925, in New York City, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... See also: 1981 in literature, other events of 1982, 1983 in literature, list of years in literature. ... A novella is a narrative work of prose fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. ... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... Different Seasons (1982) is a novella collection by Stephen King containing the following stories: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (subtitled: Hope Springs Eternal) Apt Pupil (subtitled: Summer of Corruption) The Body (subtitled: Fall From Innocence) The Breathing Method (subtitled: A Winters Tale) Three movies, The Shawshank Redemption (based on...

It was adapted into the acclaimed film Stand By Me in 1986. Directed by Rob Reiner, it stars River Phoenix as Chris and Wil Wheaton as Gordon. For other uses, see Stand by Me. ... Robert Rob Reiner (born March 6, 1945) is an American actor, director, producer, writer, childrens advocate and political activist. ... River Jude Phoenix (August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated American film actor. ... Richard William Wil Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American writer and actor. ...

Plot introduction

The story takes place during the summer of 1959 in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. A kid named Ray Brower had gone out to pick berries and never returned, having been hit by a train. Gordon Lachance and his three friends, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio set out to find his body. Castle Rock, Maine is part of Stephen King’s fictional Maine topography, and as such serves as the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. ...

In comparison to King's prior works, the narrative of The Body is complicated in that it is told in first person point of view by the now thirty-something novelist Gordon Lachance. Most of the story is a straight retrospective of what happened, but comments, or entire chapters that relate to the present time, are interspaced throughout. First-person narrative is a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one character, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, I. the narrator is a fool putting his nose into the storytelling exercise. ...

Although he is only twelve at the time of the story, Gordon's favorite diversion is writing and storytelling. Three times during the narrative, he tells stories to his friends, and two stories are presented in the text as short stories by Gordon Lachance, complete with attribution to the magazines they were published in.

As much as the story itself is basically a coming of age tale of Gordon and his pals and their mostly comical adventures in the woods, there is a bittersweet, poignant quality running throughout it. This is especially the case whenever Gordon, the narrator, begins waxing nostalgic whether describing the bygone sights and sounds of the town he grew up in or when delving into some of the more painful and bitter aspects about his own and his pals' dysfunctional home lives. In the end, the story becomes more of a chronicle describing the moment when Gordon and his pals leave their childhood behind and a bellwether as to the tragic fates that would befall all but him. This article is about Bellwethers in general. ...

Plot summary

Main narratives

Nick Gradel informs his three friends that he has overheard his older brother Billy talking with a friend about the location of the corpse of Ray Brower, a boy from Chamberlain, a town forty miles or so east of Castle Rock who has gone missing. Billy and his friend mentioned a place called Back Harlow Road, so the four friends decide that they will find it.

The boys walk along the railroad tracks toward the presumed location of the corpse. Along the way, they are chased by a junkyard dog and Gordon and Vern are nearly run over by a train while crossing a bridge. While at a resting point, Chris states that Gordie will grow up to become a famous writer - perhaps he'll even write about his friends some day.

When they finally find the spot where the body lies, Vern's older brother, Chris's older brother and a number of their teenage bully friends arrive just after they do. The older boys are upset to see the four friends, and during an argument, Chris pulls his father's gun that he has taken from his home and fires in front of one of them and then threatens Ace Merrill, the leader of the gang. After a brief standoff Ace realizes that Chris is serious, and the teenagers leave after promising to get the boys later.

The older boys ultimately decide to phone in the location of the body as an "anonymous tip" and it is eventually found by the authorities as a result. After they arrive home, Ace and another thug break Gordon's nose and fingers and kick him in the testicles, and are on the verge of harming him more seriously when they are run off by Gordon's neighbor, Aunt Evvie Chalmers. Chris's brother breaks Chris's arm and "leaves his face looking like a Canadian sunrise." Teddy and Vern get less severe beatings. The boys refuse to identify their assailants to the authorities, which earns them the respect of their peers, and there are no further repercussions.

Following the end of the 1960 part of the story, the narration goes into fast-forward. It describes the next year or so briefly, stating that Teddy and Vern drift off, befriending some younger boys. In high school, just as Chris predicted, Gordon begins taking college-preparation courses. Unexpectedly, so does Chris. In spite of abuse from his father, taunts from his classmates and distrust from teachers and counselors, he manages to be successful with help from Gordon.

The penultimate chapter describes the fates of Gordon's three friends; none of them survive past young adulthood. Vern is killed in a house fire after a party. Teddy, while under the influence of alcohol and drugs, crashes his car and kills himself with a number of others. Chris, who became an outstanding high school and college student and who is preparing to attend law school, is stabbed to death after trying to stop a fight in a restaurant. Gordon is the only one who survives. He continues to write stories through college, and publishes a number of them in small literary journals and men's magazines. He has the great luck of having his first novel become a smash hit, and a successful film as well. At the time of writing about the events in 1960, he has written seven novels about the supernatural, and he has a wife and three children... // A law school is an institution where future lawyers obtain legal degrees. ...

Stories told by "Gordon Lachance"

"Stud City" was originally "published" in Greenspun Quarterly 45 in the fall of 1970. It has also been published as a separate short story by King in Ubris (University of Maine's literary journal), Fall, 1969. UMO redirects here, but this abbreviation is also used informally to mean the Mozilla Add-ons website, formerly Mozilla Update Should not be confused with Université du Maine, in Le Mans, France The University of Maine, established in 1865, is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. ...

"The Revenge of Lard Ass Hogan" was "published" in Cavalier magazine in March 1975.

Main characters

• Gordon Lachance is the main character and narrator. At the time of the story, his older brother, Dennis, recently died in a traffic accident on an Army base. Gordie's parents are still mourning the death of their (favorite) son, and Gordon is subsequently ignored by both of them. As an adult, Gordon is a writer living in Maine.
• Chris Chambers Gordie's best friend. He is frequently beaten by an alcoholic father. His older delinquent brother, "Eyeball" Chambers, is a member of Ace Merrill's gang. Despite Chris's intelligence and maturity, adults and peers see him as a troublemaker just like his father and brother.Chris Chambers is the most handsome out of the four and never marries despite his extremely good looks. He graduates from high school and goes on to become a law student. We learn that he was tragically stabbed to death after trying to settle a dispute in a fried chicken restaurant.
• Teddy Duchamp Teddy's father is a shellshocked World War II veteran who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. After deliberately burning Teddy's ears on a stove in the middle of a psychotic episode, Teddy's father was sent to a mental hospital. As a result of the damage to his ears, Teddy has hearing loss and wears a hearing aid. Also, despite poor eyesight, Teddy is prone to taking "dares" and exhibits dangerous and reckless behavior (he tries to dodge a train at one point in the novella). He idolizes his father and wants to join the army after high school. His dream does not come true because of his disabilities. As an adult, he spent time in jail and working small jobs around Castle Rock. He died in a drunk driving accident.
• Vern "Penny" Tessio Vern is nicknamed "Penny" after a large jar of pennies he buried in his front yard while pretending he was a pirate. As the "treasure map" was accidentally destroyed, he regularly attempts to find the jar (fruitlessly). His much-feared older brother Billy is another member of Ace Merrill's gang. Vern overhears his brother talking about happening upon the dead body while he (Vern) is looking for his pennies. Vern ironically dies in an apartment building fire.

Image from The Great War taken in an Australian Dressing Station near Ypres in 1917. ... This article is about the assault phase of Operation Overlord. ...

Differences between the novella and the film

• In the movie, the only one of the friends that dies is Chris Chambers. In the novella, all of Gordie's friends die.
• In the film, Ace Merrill and his goons never beat up the friends, however in the novella they severely injure them, especially Chris and Gordie.
• In the novella, the kids get attacked by leeches when they jump into an artificial lake created by beavers to go for a swim, however in the film the kids are attacked by the leeches when they accidentally fall in a large marsh while going through the woods.
• In the novella, Gordie's big brother, Denny, is an excellent baseball player while in the film he is a football star.
• In the film, Gordie is the one that shoots a garbage can with Chris' Dad's gun, while in the novella Chris is the one that fires the gun.
• In the novella Gordie is not close to his brother and at night fears that his brother's corpse may jump out of the closet, while in the movie he is really close to his brother.

Connections to other novels

• There are parallels between Stephen King and the character Gordon. At the time of writing, they are the same age, profession and social class and were born, raised and live in Maine. Both men have written successful books that were turned into successful movies. Gordon also mentions teaching high school English at the beginning of his career as a writer, another parallel with King. The only notable differences are that Gordon served in the military (there is a brief reference to his serving in the Vietnam War — King was not drafted) and Gordon's complex relationship with his emotionally absent father. King's father left the family when he was a very young child. In childhood, King also had a friend who died when hit by a train.^[1]
• Chris Chambers mentions the Maine town Jerusalem's Lot when asserting that "lots of real towns sound stupid." Jerusalem's Lot is the fictional setting for King's vampire novel Salem's Lot and short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road".
• There is a passing reference to Derry, Maine, the fictional town famously inhabited by the creature It.
• Teddy Duchamp is mentioned briefly in King's novel Carrie, despite being published eight years before "The Body." Carrie sabotages the pumps at an Amoco gas station once operated by Teddy, leading to a devastating explosion. Minor character Thomas Quillan testifies that "Teddy Duchamp's been dead since 1968, God love him but his boy locked those pumps up every night just like Teddy himself used to do." This however does not mesh well with the character in the novella, who would have only been in his mid 20s in 1968, making it unlikely that he owned his own service station. The inconsistencies can be explained by King's Dark Tower series, which establishes that most of his works take place in alternate universes where characters with the same name can play different parts.
• Ace Merrill is featured in King's novel Needful Things, as a 40+ career criminal, and is killed. He also makes a brief cameo in the short story "Nona", in a flashback, along with Vern Tessio.
• Cujo is mentioned when the narrator describes Chopper, the dog from the junkyard that chases Gordie: "Chopper was--at least until Joe Camber's dog Cujo went rabid twenty years later--the most feared and least seen dog in Castle Rock."
• Shawshank Penitentiary from Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is mentioned in this novella when Teddy says that they "won't get sent to The Shank" for treaspassing in the junkyard.

Official language(s) None (English and French de facto) Capital Augusta Largest city Portland Area  Ranked 39th  - Total 33,414 sq mi (86,542 km²)  - Width 210 miles (338 km)  - Length 320 miles (515 km)  - % water 13. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Salems Lot is a horror novel by Stephen King, written in 1975. ... Jerusalems Lot is a short story by Stephen King, first published in 1978 in the compilation Night Shift. ... This is the title of a short story written by Stephen King and published in his Night Shift collection. ... Derry, Maine is a fictional town used by Stephen King as the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. ... It is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1986. ... Carrie (1974) is Stephen Kings first published novel. ... The American Oil Company, or Amoco, was a global chemical and oil company, founded in Baltimore in 1910 and incorporated in 1922 by Louis Blaustein and his son Jacob, but now part of BP. The firms early innovations include the gasoline tanker truck and the drive-through filling station. ... Needful Things is a horror novel by Stephen King and published in 1991. ... Nona is a short horror story by Stephen King first published in the 1978 Shadows anthlogy and collected in the 1985 volume Skeleton Crew. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982) is a novella by Stephen King, originally published in Different Seasons. ...

Popular culture references

• A character on the TV show 24, is named Milo Pressman, the same as the dump-keeper who owned Chopper. Series star Kiefer Sutherland portrayed Ace Merrill in Stand By Me, the film adaptation of the novella. It is unclear if this is an intentional nod to the novella and film.
• Scottish band "The Twilight Sad" wrote a song based around the short story, That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy, it was featured on their debut album.

24 is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American action drama television series. ... Milo Pressman was a fictional character, played by Eric Balfour on the show 24. ... Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland (born December 21, 1966) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning British actor, well known for his lead role of Jack Bauer on the television series 24. ... For other uses, see Stand by Me. ... The Twilight Sad are an indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. ...

References

[1]