Appearances
Derry appears in numerous short stories and novellas by King, and is the full or partial setting of several of his novels:
- In It, the first and defining Derry novel, the town is portrayed as haunted by a monster that changes shape to match the fears of its victim. This creature, dubbed "It" by its young protagonists, was responsible for the complete disappearance of the local population during its early settlement, and for hundreds of horrific tragedies and murders ever since. All of the atrocities throughout Derry's history are treated with total indifference by the local residents, suggesting that It's evil has completely corrupted the town and everyone in it. It's hold over Derry is so absolute that its apparent death causes an enormous storm that destroys half the city at the end of the novel.
- In The Tommyknockers, a character from the neighboring town of Haven drives through Derry. He glimpses "a clown, with silver dollars for eyes, holding a bunch of balloons" in a storm drain, implying that It is still alive. Derry is also the home of the nearest Maine State Police barracks to Haven.
- Insomnia, King's next Derry-centric story, concerns Ralph Roberts and Lois Chasse, two elderly Derry residents who are receptive to different planes of reality. The two use their knowledge and powers to stop their neighbor, chemist-turned-anti-abortion fanatic Ed Deepneau, from causing a tragedy in Derry that would have drastically impacted the Dark Tower universe.
- The third is Bag of Bones, though it is only partially set in Derry–the beginning chapters of the book detail Mike Noonan's preparation to leave Derry after his wife dies of an aneurysm. The rest of the novel is set at the Noonan's summer home, Sara Laughs.
- King's novel Dreamcatcher, about an encounter between four men and a hostile extraterrestrial being, is primarily set some forty miles north of Derry. Some portions of the novel, however, are set in the town.
- 11/22/63, about a man traveling back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination, is partially set in Derry during the fall of 1958. Jake Epping, the time traveller, narrates the story and repeatedly notes his displeasure with Derry and most of its residents; he later registers a similar dislike for Dallas, Texas, and compares it to Derry. Epping discusses It's child murders with a hotel bartender after he arrives in town. He also has an encounter with two of the main characters from It, Richie Tozier and Beverly Marsh, just after their triumphant first battle with It.
Read more about this topic: Derry (Stephen King)
Famous quotes containing the word appearances:
“It is doubtless wise, when a reform is introduced, to try to persuade the British public that it is not a reform at all; but appearances must be kept up to some extent at least.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“We often think ourselves inconsistent creatures, when we are the furthest from it, and all the variety of shapes and contradictory appearances we put on, are in truth but so many different attempts to gratify the same governing appetite.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“What I often forget about students, especially undergraduates, is that surface appearances are misleading. Most of them are at base as conventional as Presbyterian deacons.”
—Muriel Beadle (b. 1915)