Needful Things
Encyclopedia
Needful Things is a 1991
horror
novel
by American
author
Stephen King
. According to the cover, it is "The Last Castle Rock
Story." However, the town later served as the setting for the short story "It Grows on You
," published in King's 1993 collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes which, according to King, served as a sort of epilogue to Needful Things. It was made into a film of the same name
in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston.
, sparking the curiosity of its citizens. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is a charming elderly gentleman who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer who comes through his door. The prices are surprisingly low, considering the merchandise - such as a rare Sandy Koufax
baseball card, a carnival glass
lampshade, and a fragment of wood believed to be from Noah's Ark
- but he expects each customer to also play a little prank on someone else in Castle Rock. Gaunt knows about the long-standing private grudges, arguments, and feuds between the various townspeople, and the pranks are his means of forcing them to escalate until the whole town is eventually caught up in madness and violence.
Sheriff Alan Pangborn becomes wary of Gaunt as soon as the shop opens. However, his lover, Polly Chalmers, dismisses his suspicions and buys an ancient charm that relieves the arthritis
pain in her hands. The tension between them grows after Nettie Cobb, Polly's housekeeper, and her enemy Wilma Jerzyck kill each other in a confrontation sparked by pranks played on them by others.
Many other rivalries begin to fester, spurred by the personal motives of the people involved (drugs, secret pedophilia, bad business dealings, religious disagreements, etc.). Gaunt eventually hires petty criminal John "Ace" Merrill as his assistant, holding out the promise of buried treasure that could relieve the debt he owes to a pair of drug dealers. Ace's first assignment is to retrieve crates of blasting caps and firearms, the latter of which Gaunt begins to sell to his customers so they can protect their property. During this errand, Ace leaves his own muscle-car--described as a "puke green Dodge Challenger
"--in a garage in a desolate part of Boston
, exchanging it for Leland's own vehicle -- a "one-of-a-kind" Tucker
; Ace is astonished that, not only does Mr. Gaunt own a Tucker -- but that the vehicle in question, a Tucker Talisman, requires no gasoline and is invisible to police manning speed-traps. (In line with all of Gaunt's pawns receiving their most-desired objects, Ace Merrill is given access to, perhaps, the "ultimate car"; at the same time, he is repeatedly given large amounts of cocaine
(his drug of choice -- and the drug which has put him in mortal danger as a dealer). Ace begins to suspect the supernatural background to his new "employer", but is quickly cowed by Gaunt, for four reasons: his desire to make something of himself, which Gaunt seems to promise; his desire for revenge towards those (including Sheriff Pangborn) whom he believes have been the cause of his sad life; his desire to acquire more of Gaunt's cocaine -- the best he's ever encountered -- and finally, ultimately, because he realizes that he's terrified of Gaunt, and has no way of interfering without courting certain death.
It is revealed that Gaunt has traveled the world for centuries, selling useless junk that appears to be whatever the customers desire most. They become so paranoid
about keeping the items safe that they eagerly buy up the weapons that he inevitably offers for sale and trade away their souls. Even Ace falls under Gaunt's sway in this regard, following a map that he finds in a book to a treasure that his late uncle Reginald "Pop" Merrill (who was killed in The Sun Dog
, a prequel of sorts to this novel) supposedly left behind when he died. Ace finds that there is nothing there but a boastful letter from Pangborn, claiming to have taken the money already, a sum claimed to be almost two hundred thousand dollars.
With the violence in Castle Rock rapidly escalating, Ace and the town's head selectman Danforth "Buster" Keeton (who has embezzled thousands of dollars in public funds) plant dynamite
all over town, using the caps Ace brought back. Alan sets out to kill Ace, wrongly believing him to be responsible for a car accident that killed Alan's wife and son, and Polly realizes the evil of the charm she bought and destroys it. As the dynamite bombs explode and Keeton is killed, Ace takes Polly hostage and demands that Alan tell him where Pop's money is hidden, only to be shot dead by one of Alan's deputies. Alan then faces off against Gaunt -- employing a cheap expanding-flower magic trick, which becomes (under Pangborn's new-found faith, arguably) a powerful blast, which distracts Gaunt; Alan uses this brief moment to steal a valise that contains the souls of all Gaunt's customers, and manages to convince Gaunt that he's lost this battle. Gaunt departs, the Tucker
transforming into a medieval peddler's wagon -- manned by a hunch-backed dwarf, and a set of horses -- leaving the survivors to pick up the pieces. Although many of the townspeople are dead, their souls have been saved; Gaunt has moved-on, defeated, perhaps, this time, but ready to play his eternal game wherever there are other "buyers" to prey upon.
The novel ends as it begins, with a first-person narrative indicating that a new and mysterious shop is about to open in a small Iowa town - an implication that Gaunt is ready to begin his business cycle all over again.
1991 in literature
The year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation....
horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
. According to the cover, it is "The Last Castle Rock
Castle Rock (Stephen King)
Castle Rock, Maine is part of Stephen King’s fictional Maine topography and provides the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories...
Story." However, the town later served as the setting for the short story "It Grows on You
It Grows On You
"It Grows On You" is a short story written by author Stephen King and originally published in Marshroots, volume 3, no. 1, Fall 1973, later revised and published in August 1982 in Whispers, and again revised for the 1993 short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes.-Plot summary:The story...
," published in King's 1993 collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes which, according to King, served as a sort of epilogue to Needful Things. It was made into a film of the same name
Needful Things (film)
Needful Things is the 1993 film adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name directed by Fraser C. Heston, the son of actor Charlton Heston...
in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston.
Plot
A new shop named "Needful Things" opens in the town of Castle Rock, MaineCastle Rock (Stephen King)
Castle Rock, Maine is part of Stephen King’s fictional Maine topography and provides the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories...
, sparking the curiosity of its citizens. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is a charming elderly gentleman who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer who comes through his door. The prices are surprisingly low, considering the merchandise - such as a rare Sandy Koufax
Sandy Koufax
Sanford "Sandy" Koufax is a former left-handed baseball pitcher who played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers...
baseball card, a carnival glass
Carnival glass
Carnival glass is moulded or pressed glass, always with a pattern and always with a shiny, metallic, 'iridescent' surface shimmer.The keys to its appeal were that it looked superficially like the very much finer and very much more expensive blown iridescent glass by Tiffany, Loetz and others and...
lampshade, and a fragment of wood believed to be from Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
- but he expects each customer to also play a little prank on someone else in Castle Rock. Gaunt knows about the long-standing private grudges, arguments, and feuds between the various townspeople, and the pranks are his means of forcing them to escalate until the whole town is eventually caught up in madness and violence.
Sheriff Alan Pangborn becomes wary of Gaunt as soon as the shop opens. However, his lover, Polly Chalmers, dismisses his suspicions and buys an ancient charm that relieves the arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
pain in her hands. The tension between them grows after Nettie Cobb, Polly's housekeeper, and her enemy Wilma Jerzyck kill each other in a confrontation sparked by pranks played on them by others.
Many other rivalries begin to fester, spurred by the personal motives of the people involved (drugs, secret pedophilia, bad business dealings, religious disagreements, etc.). Gaunt eventually hires petty criminal John "Ace" Merrill as his assistant, holding out the promise of buried treasure that could relieve the debt he owes to a pair of drug dealers. Ace's first assignment is to retrieve crates of blasting caps and firearms, the latter of which Gaunt begins to sell to his customers so they can protect their property. During this errand, Ace leaves his own muscle-car--described as a "puke green Dodge Challenger
Dodge Challenger
The Dodge Challenger is the name of three different generations of automobiles marketed by the Dodge division of Chrysler.The first generation Dodge Challenger was a pony car built from 1970 to 1974, using the Chrysler E platform and sharing major components with the Plymouth Barracuda. The second...
"--in a garage in a desolate part of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, exchanging it for Leland's own vehicle -- a "one-of-a-kind" Tucker
1948 Tucker Sedan
The 1948 Tucker Sedan or Tucker '48 Sedan was an advanced automobile conceived by Preston Tucker and briefly produced in Chicago in 1948...
; Ace is astonished that, not only does Mr. Gaunt own a Tucker -- but that the vehicle in question, a Tucker Talisman, requires no gasoline and is invisible to police manning speed-traps. (In line with all of Gaunt's pawns receiving their most-desired objects, Ace Merrill is given access to, perhaps, the "ultimate car"; at the same time, he is repeatedly given large amounts of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
(his drug of choice -- and the drug which has put him in mortal danger as a dealer). Ace begins to suspect the supernatural background to his new "employer", but is quickly cowed by Gaunt, for four reasons: his desire to make something of himself, which Gaunt seems to promise; his desire for revenge towards those (including Sheriff Pangborn) whom he believes have been the cause of his sad life; his desire to acquire more of Gaunt's cocaine -- the best he's ever encountered -- and finally, ultimately, because he realizes that he's terrified of Gaunt, and has no way of interfering without courting certain death.
It is revealed that Gaunt has traveled the world for centuries, selling useless junk that appears to be whatever the customers desire most. They become so paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
about keeping the items safe that they eagerly buy up the weapons that he inevitably offers for sale and trade away their souls. Even Ace falls under Gaunt's sway in this regard, following a map that he finds in a book to a treasure that his late uncle Reginald "Pop" Merrill (who was killed in The Sun Dog
The Sun Dog
The Sun Dog is one of four novellas by Stephen King appearing in the book Four Past Midnight, published September 1990.- Plot :Kevin Delevan receives a Sun 660 Polaroid camera for his fifteenth birthday...
, a prequel of sorts to this novel) supposedly left behind when he died. Ace finds that there is nothing there but a boastful letter from Pangborn, claiming to have taken the money already, a sum claimed to be almost two hundred thousand dollars.
With the violence in Castle Rock rapidly escalating, Ace and the town's head selectman Danforth "Buster" Keeton (who has embezzled thousands of dollars in public funds) plant dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
all over town, using the caps Ace brought back. Alan sets out to kill Ace, wrongly believing him to be responsible for a car accident that killed Alan's wife and son, and Polly realizes the evil of the charm she bought and destroys it. As the dynamite bombs explode and Keeton is killed, Ace takes Polly hostage and demands that Alan tell him where Pop's money is hidden, only to be shot dead by one of Alan's deputies. Alan then faces off against Gaunt -- employing a cheap expanding-flower magic trick, which becomes (under Pangborn's new-found faith, arguably) a powerful blast, which distracts Gaunt; Alan uses this brief moment to steal a valise that contains the souls of all Gaunt's customers, and manages to convince Gaunt that he's lost this battle. Gaunt departs, the Tucker
1948 Tucker Sedan
The 1948 Tucker Sedan or Tucker '48 Sedan was an advanced automobile conceived by Preston Tucker and briefly produced in Chicago in 1948...
transforming into a medieval peddler's wagon -- manned by a hunch-backed dwarf, and a set of horses -- leaving the survivors to pick up the pieces. Although many of the townspeople are dead, their souls have been saved; Gaunt has moved-on, defeated, perhaps, this time, but ready to play his eternal game wherever there are other "buyers" to prey upon.
The novel ends as it begins, with a first-person narrative indicating that a new and mysterious shop is about to open in a small Iowa town - an implication that Gaunt is ready to begin his business cycle all over again.
Main characters
- Brian Rusk: The boy who is the first customer in the store called Needful Things. He dreams about his teacher falling in love with him. He was asked by Leland Gaunt to sell his soul for a rare signed Sandy Koufax '56 Baseball card. He later commits suicide by the end of the novel in front of his horrified younger brother, Sean.
- Leland Gaunt: Presumably a demon in human form, who has spent centuries traveling about the world and tricking people into selling their souls to him, usually in exchange for useless objects disguised as the things they want most. Castle Rock is his latest target. Gaunt seems to know the townspeople's greatest secrets, and speaks of them in a way to soothe the customers of his shop. His eyes also change color, depending on who is looking at them, as a way to entice his customers
- Sheriff Alan Pangborn: the Sheriff of Castle Rock and the main protagonist. Gaunt was wary of Pangborn from the start, knowing he would not be nearly as easy to fool as the others and that Gaunt would need a lot of help before he would be able to face Pangborn head-on. Pangborn once had a wife and son, but they both died in a mysterious, unsolved car accident.
- Patricia "Polly" Chalmers: known as the town's most eccentric woman, Polly was originally a Castle Rock native who became an "out-of-towner" after living in San Francisco for years before returning. She had left to escape the iron heel of her devout parents after getting pregnant, planning to give up the baby and start a new life in the city, but she kept the child out of love. When she returns to Castle Rock without him, gossip surrounds her but she refuses to explain herself and her life remains a mystery. She suffers from severe arthritisArthritisArthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
in her hands.
- Norris Ridgewick: one of the town's deputies and Sheriff Pangborn's closest ally. Norris was an avid fishermanFishermanA fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
who had learned the craft from his father, and had a strong liking for Bazun fishing rodFishing rodA fishing rod or a fishing pole is a tool used to catch fish, usually in conjunction with the pastime of angling, and can also be used in competition casting. . A length of fishing line is attached to a long, flexible rod or pole: one end terminates in a hook for catching the fish...
s. He bought one of these rods from Gaunt, thus entangling himself in the web of evil.
- John "Ace" Merrill: the town's resident "bad boy" and petty criminal. Ace was a notorious bully in high school (as detailed in 'The Body'The Body (novella)The Body, or Fall from Innocence, is a novella by Stephen King, originally published in King's 1982 collection Different Seasons and in 1986 adapted into the acclaimed film Stand by Me...
) but left the town, becoming a drug dealer, occasional cocaine user and gunrunner. After being tricked in one of his deals, Ace became heavily indebted to a pair of fellow dealers known as the Flying Corson Brothers, and only had a short time to pay them before being subjected to a horrific and painful death. In a bid of desperation, he returned to Castle Rock, finding Gaunt and swiftly becoming his faithful employee. Gaunt sells him a book which Ace believes is the key to discovering his late Uncle's presumed "buried treasure". To all others, the book is simply a copy of Treasure IslandTreasure IslandTreasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold". First published as a book on May 23, 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881–82 under the title Treasure Island; or, the...
, by Robert Louis StevensonRobert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
.
- Danforth "Buster" Keeton: Danforth was one of the town's selectmen and thus enjoyed a position of a little authority. He was a large man with a brutal, fiery temper who constantly abused his wife, Myrtle, and hated being called "Buster" to his face. Unknown to just about everyone, he was actually deep in debt from his constant gambling at the horse tracksHorse racingHorse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
, which he paid for out of the town's funds. He was guilty of a long list of crimes, including theftTheftIn common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
, fraudFraudIn criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
, and embezzlementEmbezzlementEmbezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
. Mentally unstable, he was paranoid and believed in "Them", the shadowy cabal of authority figures that he believed persecuted him at every turn and intended to drive him insane. Gaunt sells him a mechanical horse-racing game; to Keeton's delight, he finds that the game can be used for augury to predict the actual results of horse-races. Keeton intends to use the game to save himself by repaying the town treasury.