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.But society s rules do not protectgood people who make bad decisions.In Needful Things King changes his view of childhood.Even childrenare taken in by Gaunt.Their innocence is no protection.Brian sees thereality of his actions too late.He has lost the protection of being a child.Inother King novels children survive because they believe in the monstersadults deny.Brian s childhood dream of owning a special baseball cardbetrays him.King may be suggesting that collecting baseball cards hasbecome tainted by adult greed and materialism.Baseball cards have becomebig business.Brian is too young for the adult world.He has confusedchildhood desires with adult dreams of getting something for nothing.Hecannot confide in Alan.He commits suicide, an act associated with adults,because he does not see any other solution.Society s failure in Needful Things extends to the parent/childrelationship.Alan does not really get a chance to form a new father/sonrelationship with Brian and save him.Gaunt s actions either play on failedfather/son relationships or destroy potential relationships.Characters aredrawn to Gaunt s shop by the promise of either improving or regaining aconnection with a father figure.Brian s father started his collection.Brian hasworked hard to get many of his cards, but the Sandy Koufax card is beyondhis reach.A purchase from Gaunt s shop does not improve his relationshipwith his father because the terms of purchase make it impossible for Brian toshare it with anyone.Items from Gaunt s shop isolate people because theycannot admit what they have done to purchase their treasures.Norris andBrian finally realize that things cannot substitute for true parent/childrelationships.They feel so guilty about their actions that they no longer wantto live.The destruction of family connections is just one kind of evil thatGaunt brings to Castle Rock.Gaunt embodies a kind of evil which exists outside of normal humaninteractions.He is a monster, but he uses human needs and emotions asthe tools of his destruction.In Needful Things King is saying good-bye tomore than Castle Rock.He examines the nature of the relationshipbetween good and evil in a small New England town.The openingdescription of the town explains its social structure and examines membersof Castle Rock and the motives for their actions.King assigns differentvalues to the choices people make in Gaunt s shop.The objects they selectreflect their lives.Some people operate out of greed and pettiness.Theychoose things which support their fantasies.King finds these adultsridiculous and even dangerous.While Cora Rusk indulges in her fantasyrelationship with Elvis, Brian, her son, commits suicide.Some shoppers Needful Things (1991) 137are pathetic.Gaunt tempts Nettie with a piece of carnival glass.She oncehad gone crazy and killed her abusive husband when he broke pieces of hercollection.King suggests that our attachment to things as a substitute forreal relationships is sad, leading us to overvalue things and becomeparanoid about losing them.Gaunt s evil is successful because he knows how to take small humandefects and connect them to create mass destruction.No one really enjoystheir purchase from Gaunt.His bargains are too costly.People can t showtheir objects to others.In most cases, if they shared the joy in their purchase,they would find out how they had been cheated.Gaunt controls the way theysee their objects.They can t see the reality behind their bargains.Many oftheir treasures are really junk.False things cannot replace real relationships,as many people discover.They also realize that they have made bad bargainsthey can t revoke.Only a few people successfully break away from Gaunt scontrol.Alan escapes from the power of the videotape, and Polly returns hercharm.Alan is able to defeat Gaunt because he is not impressed with the manor his power.Alan s character unites many of the themes in the novel.He haslost his son and cannot save Brian.He is a representative of law and orderwho cannot prevent the destruction of the town.But Alan survives andtriumphs because he learns how to accept his losses.His dead son s trickworks on Gaunt.His successful relationship with Polly overcomes the powerof Gaunt s tape.Their combined goodness turns Alan s magic tricks into realsnakes and shafts of light which overcome Gaunt s evil.Gaunt is notdestroyed, but he leaves town without the souls he came for.The survivorsknow they will have to live with the consequences of their actions.There willbe no more Castle Rock.But they value what they have learned.They see theeffect of the evil Gaunt represents, and they understand their own complicityin the destruction.This knowledge is their punishment for agreeing toGaunt s terms, but it also gives them the power to avoid such choices in thefuture.ALTERNATIVE READING: GENRENeedful Things is another example of how King explores the limits ofthe horror genre in his recent fiction.In Misery he uses realism to create adifferent kind of horror one without supernatural origins.In this novel wemust witness the horror of human evil.Gerald s Game and Dolores Claiborneare also realistic novels.In Needful Things King examines our relationship tothe supernatural.He looks at the horror genre and its relationship to the evilwhich comes from within us and that which has a source outside of us.Many 138 Sharon A.Russellof King s horror novels deal with evil which originates outside of theindividual: the aliens in Tommyknockers, the clown in It, the ghosts in TheShining.Often the horror comes from inside a character.In Needful Thingsthe evil begins outside of the individual, but humans carry out thedestruction.Gaunt uses human malice and greed to accomplish hisdestruction
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