The body door Stephen King

Title: The body
Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Pearson Education Limited, Edinburgh
Number of pages: 72
Number of chapters: 27

Description of main character:

The head person is Gordie. He is the writer of this book. He is a young boy of twelve years old. His mother and his father are not interested in him. His older brother Dennis died five months ago. He has three friends: Terry, Vern and Chris.

The problems the main character must handle:

He and his friends want to find the dead body of Ray Brower. When he goes with his friends to find the dead body there are a lot of problems: They must walk very far, must sleep in the forest with wild animals, and weather is very bad. These problems sometimes make him afraid, but he goes on.

My opinion:

This book is an autobiography. It is a nice book. The persons are really human. They talk and do things that we would do as well when in that position. The story is nice, but sometimes difficult to read. This book is very exciting to read, but sometimes there were things that made me feel afraid. I can advise other people to read this book.

Contents:

I have made a small summary from every 25 pages.

Chapter: 1-10; pages: 1-25
This book tells about four young boys Vern, Teddy, Chris and Gordie. They are friends of about 12 years old. They have a tree house where they play cards and sometimes smoke cigarettes. One day one of them, Vern, comes to the tree house asking them if they will camp out that night, because he will show them a dead body. Vern has heard that from his older brother Billy when he was talking with his friends. They think it is the body from Ray Brower who has lost his way in the forest three days before. The four boys plan to look for the dead body and then report it to the newspaper. To their parents they say that they will have a lunch at Vern’s and Chris’s. When Gordie came home his father said that it was OK that he would camp at Vern’s. Gordie’s brother Denny (Dennis) was killed in an accident five months ago. Now he is alone with his parents, who don’t really like him. When Gordie and Chris meet each other Chris takes Gordie with him to an alley where he shows him a gun. It’s his father’s gun. He took it from his desk. His father would not notice, because he is drunk. It’s nearly twelve when they leave. They walk next to the tracks of the railway. When a train came, Teddy waited till it’s close and then jump away, but Gordie pulled him away. Teddy is so angry that he hits him, but Chris and Vern separated them. They go to the dump to get water. Then they spin with a coin to find out who of them must to go get some food. They had (one time) all four tails and that means bad luck. Finally Gordie has to go. When he returns he goes through the dump. Milo Pressman sees him and sends his dog to get him. He runs for his life and, just in time, he can climb over the fence. They have arguments with Milo. Milo called Teddy’s father a madman. Then they go away.

Chapter: 11-17; pages: 25-50
They had almost reached the bridge when Teddy suddenly burst into tears. Chris talks to him and says that he can be proud of his father, because his father fought on the beaches at Normandy. Vern realizes that it can be a night-sweat to see the dead body. The other boys agree, but they still will go on. The boys arrive at the bridge over the Castle River. The bridge was made of wood and had spaces all the way across. They are very afraid, but they go. Chris first, then Teddy, Vern and Gordie last. Vern and Gordie are nearly halfway when Gordie hears the train come. He has never been so frightened as at that moment. Vern and Gordie start to run. At the last moment they jump from the bridge. They land in the dust and the stones, shaking all over. They drink a Coke, then they start to walk again in the forest. Chris and Gordie walk together. They speak about school and where they are in the end of this school year. Chris says Gordie will be on the college courses and the others on the shop courses. Gordie will not leave his friends, but Chris says that he is a fool when he doesn’t, because they will drag him down and he must work in the factory or shops for ever. Chris wants to go to college too. After a mile they stop and they make a camp fire, they eat hamburgers, smoke cigarettes and talk. In the middle of the night they all wake up, because they hear a loud scream. They are very afraid. Chris suggests to keep guard and everyone agrees. Gordie was last. Early in the morning (at five) Gordie climbed up to the railway tracks and sat down. Suddenly, to his right he saw a deer standing between the tracks.The deer looked calmly to him and then she turned and walked off to the grass and began to eat. When the train came she ran away. Gordie went back to the other boys. He will never forget the deer and it helped him later when there was trouble in his life. They went onwards in the forest. It was very hot. About half past nine they saw a pool. Chris went in first. Then the others followed him. The water was clean and cool. Suddenly they saw that there were leeches all over their body. They ran out of the water, screaming and pulling the leeches of their bodies. Gordie even had one in his ear. It was terrible.

Chapter 18-27; pages 50-72
They walked on. It was a longer distance than they had thought. What they didn’t know as they walked around was that Billy Tessio and six other members of his gang were on their way to take a look at the body as well. They went with their cars to the Back Harlow area. About half past three they saw the Royal river. At the same time they saw the first lightning and heard the thunder. They stop walking. While they spoke to each other about the bad weather Vern shouted that he saw the dead body. He saw a white hand. There were black insects walking on the hand. They walked to the body. His hair was dark red with a bit blood on it. He was wearing a dark green T-shirt and blue jeans, and his shoes were hanging on the bush. Gordie thinks that the train has knocked him out of his shoes. An insect came out of his mouth. That made the boys feel sick. The noise of the rain and the thunder made that they did not hear the cars and the seven boys of the gang come. The first they heard was the voice of Ace Merrill and he is very angry when he sees them. They have an argument about the dead body with Ace and his boys, because Ace and his friends want to report it and the four friends want that too. They found that they have done so much to go and find the body. Ace, Charlie and the others come nearer to start a fight, but then Chris came with his father’s gun and he shoots! Then the seven boys stopped. Ace too when he understood that Chris was very serious. Then the storm came back even stronger with enormous hailstones. Vern and Teddy ran away, as well as some boys of the gang. Gordie and Chris remained with Ace and Eyeball. Finally the big boys of the gang leave. Chris is angry, because Vern and Terry went away. Chris wants to take the dead body of Ray Brower with him, but Gordie says it is impossible. Chris tried to hit Gordie, but fell to the ground beside Ray Brower. Then he began to cry. Twenty minutes later they decided to go back home. First they searched for the cartridges of the gun. They are afraid that Ace’s gang will call the police. They walk back to the bridge fast. They reached town and their tree house. Vern is sure that Billy (his brother) is going to get him. Chris says that Richie is going to get him too and someone else will get Gordie and Terry. But they DID it. Vern and Teddy left. Chris and Gordie walk home together. Chris thinks Vern and Teddy will tell others, but Gordie doesn’t think so, because they won't know what to say at first and they will forget it later. When Gordie arrived at home he washed all over and made himself an enormous breakfast. His mother hadn’t really missed him. The story never did get out. Ace Merrill phoned the police without leaving his name, and that’s how they found the body. Vern and Teddy found new friends. Chris and Gordie started going to the treehouse less and less.
Some years later Vern was killed in a fire when they smoke cigarettes after a party. Teddy crashed into a tree with his car while he was drunk. Chris graduated and went to university to study law. He got a knife in his throat when he tried to make peace between two men in a restaurant. And Gordie? The one who had ‘bad luck ’with the coins and had to go to the shop, he is a writer now.