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A Surrogate Family

Marianne Myers
A Surrogate Family
Stephen King’s novella followed four, rambunctious, young boys, as they set out to find the dead body of an infamous missing teenager. The end of their age of innocence had long been creeping up, and a butcher body on the train tracks, would only confirm what they each suspected. Life is violent. The Body portrays them merely as rowdy, adolescent boys, on the cusp of growing up. Life had thrown punches which made it hard for any of them to stay standing. They dealt with mature situations that forced them into adulthood sooner than most kids their age. Just Recently, Gordie’s brother had died, and it left his home broken, and sad. His esteem and aspirations were met with his parent’s unrelenting comparison of him and his high-achieving brother. Chris and Teddy were abused, and exposed to older siblings that gave them little hope, only a likely reflection into the future of their own lives. The dead body was, figuratively, the final stage of their loss of innocence. Innocence which had slowly been shedding away, and was left stayed on the train tracks, with Ray Brower.
Thanks Chris, Gordie was awakened, by the self-discovery that he was as talented as his older brother. He learned that he was not the invisible boy that his parents made him out to be. His friends helped show him that his talent for writing was valuable and impressive. Chris and Teddy pushed Gordie to use his gift; they asked to read his stories and to hear them aloud. It established the comfort and courage Gordie needed to be successful in school, and as an author. In turn, Gordie suggested to Chris that he didn’t have to be like the rest of his family, and that he was intelligent and determined enough to be successful.
Gordie protected Chris’ name, after his father attacked his character. Chris, acted as a father-figure to the rest of the gang, and guarded and defended them throughout the novella; he saved Teddy after he fell from a tree,...