Cujo is a cruel book (warning: spoilers included)

[devious1]

so i recently re-read Cujo, and i have to say that this is a very mean, cruel book. i mean i can't say that King's protagonists always end up well at the end of his novels/stories, but all i can say is poor Vic. first, his company is on the verge of collapsing. then he finds out about his wife cheating on him in just about the worst way possible (I enjoyed ****ing the **** out of her, do you have any questions? cruel, so cruel). then that prick Kemp destroys his house, and to top it all off, he loses his son as well. it seems King must have been in a very bitter frame of mind when he wrote this book, but i guess we can't ask him since he doesn't even remember much about writing it. i mean it's still a good read, but so, so cruel.

PS: i would have included spoiler tags but i somehow can't seem to figure out how to do that. so hopefully people who have yet to read the book will mind the warning!

I added them in for you.

[devious1]

i hate to be picky but i'm just wondering about the language censoring here, if that's the policy here, then i will adhere to it from this point on. but considering the author who this site is dedicated to uses these words pretty freely in his novels, i just wonder why it isn't acceptable here on the site. not a complaint really, just curious, and as i said i will watch my language from now on here since this is the policy. anyway back to the topic: did anyone else see this book as being this cruel?

[devious1]

and just for future reference, i appreciate you adding in the spoiler tags, but how do i do it myself? i can't seem to figure it out. me dumb :)

[Moderator]

We have language software that censors words. It's an open forum for anyone to read and that means that there could be children viewing the comments so we chose to have that in place.

[staropeace]

I dont think you hate to be picky at all,actually.

[Moderator]

and just for future reference, i appreciate you adding in the spoiler tags, but how do i do it myself? i can't seem to figure it out. me dumb :)


The instructions are in the Read Me First thread (http://67.192.60.208/forums/showthread.php?t=3618).

[devious1]

ok, that makes sense. thanks for letting me know.

[devious1]

I dont think you hate to be picky at all,actually.huh? i was just curious, that's all. i just found it a little odd that language was censored on the site as King uses the same words himself often in his works. but it has been explained to me, so it's all good.

PS: ok, i admit, i am kinda picky sometimes, its just in my nature :biggrin2:

[staropeace]

Glad you told the truth and shamed the devil....LMAO :biggrin2:
Now doesnt that feel better?

[kisun]

Trust me, you'll get over it.

[devious1]

lol, it kinda does. i should have just PM'ed Ms. Mod about it instead of posting it here i guess. but anyway, back to the topic at hand. comments?

[staropeace]

The thing is, Stephen writes horror stories....cruelty is sorta the nature of the genre. We are all looking for a good shock and he delivers. Real life is much more awful. Look at what that woman did in Nova Scotia. Killed her twelve year old daughter. Now that is real cruelty!

How is the weather in Winnepeg today? Think we have thunderstorms predicted here in Edmonton for today.

[rjt65]

I just reread Cujo and loved it. S!@#*%^&T happens in real life that is cruel, and sai king taps into it so well in this book. Cheating partners, spurned lover takes revenge...happens all the time.

I obviously spiked emotions in you, so King was successful in what a writer should seek to do.

[kingofkilling1]

hey im a child i don't mind. awesome book is cujo by the way.

[devious1]

well it seemed to me that Vic had to go thru so much, and even tho a lot of King's protagonists have to go thru hell as well, usually at the end of the story, things kinda work out for them. i'm not denying that this stuff happens in real life (in fact that's actually why i do enjoy this book so much, and why it's so scary, since this could happen, unlike most of his stuff). it just seemed to me that Vic probably ended up the worst of the lot, and hardly had anything to show for it at the end. Poor guy.

[devious1]

oh, and staropeace, no thunderstorms here, but still rainy.

[Speedygi81]

LoL if you think Cujo's a cruel book, I guarantee you'll be laughing your way through it right after you read Jack Ketchum's writing.

[LadyPain]

Cujo is not a cruel book. Don't forget that life is cruel. Sai King takes potential events and turns them into stories for those of us who love them. It's the big WHAT IF? What would happen if...? Stories are written and embellished and are there all sorts of dark paths they can take, just as real life is not all light and posies.

When I lived overseas, a puppy my friends and I had ended up with rabies. We were living in India, without access to a small animal vet. One of the people in our group was only four years old, so to protect her, one of the guys had to use a brick to cave in the rabid little puppy's head. Yes, kind of graphic, but rabies is a very ugly disease in a dog. Very dangerous. It happens.

Good luck learning how to work the forums. Take the time to get to know more about Sai King's works. Try reading 'On Writing'. It's really quite tame. It's true to its title, and it's a real darling of a read.

[donna1982]

Cujo was really disturbing for me, I think because I too viewed it as something that could really happen. It left me really upset and broken hearted.:sad:

[Dana]

Cujo was really disturbing for me, I think because I too viewed it as something that could really happen. It left me really upset and broken hearted.:sad:

Me too. :down:

[devious1]

well i think you guys are missing the point i'm trying to make here. it's not as though i expected it to be nice. i've been reading King's work for almost 20 years now so i do know what to expect. i'm just thinking in terms of what the protagonist has to go through and how they come out at the end of it. like i said, it's not as though all of his stories have happy endings, but the only other character i can think of who ultimately suffers a worse fate and REALLY ends up with nothing is Louis Creed from Pet Sematary. in that sense i think it's a cruel book. but don't get me wrong, i still love it and always will, i just ended up feeling that Vic really got the shaft in this one.

[Sundrop]

Well, you could try reading it backwards...maybe everyone will live happily ever after LOL:biggrin2:

Oh, what am I thinking?? Horror stories aren't supposed to have happy endings:oops:

[rjt65]

So you prefer some happiness be thrown in for every character that is the main person in the books at each ending?

Well Vic got to keep his wife and they didn't lose the account right away

That should have comforted you :biggrin2:

[kingofkilling1]

i get your drift dude.you feel sorry for him because his wife cheating buisness. all that crap.

[devious1]

ok well now i wish i had never made this post. either you guys are misunderstanding me or i'm just not doing a good job of explaining myself. it's probably me. it's not like i expect a happy ending, i know with King happy endings are few and far between, and i have no problem with that. in fact, for the most part i prefer it that way, when the good guys don't always win. i just wish this book had a slightly better outcome for Vic.

and rjt65, sure he gets to keep his cheating skank of a wife, what kind of bonus is that? lol. as you can see i cared very little for Donna in this book. i wish it was her who died and not Tad.but hey, this is just my opinion, apparently not a very popular one tho :( lol

[Speedygi81]

So you prefer some happiness be thrown in for every character that is the main person in the books at each ending?

Well Vic got to keep his wife and they didn't lose the account right away

That should have comforted you :biggrin2:

And their marriage is on the road to healing too.

[maryp]

why was it cruel? i forget which character is vic? was it the little kid?

[jgmagic95]

well i think you guys are missing the point i'm trying to make here. it's not as though i expected it to be nice. i've been reading King's work for almost 20 years now so i do know what to expect. i'm just thinking in terms of what the protagonist has to go through and how they come out at the end of it. like i said, it's not as though all of his stories have happy endings, but the only other character i can think of who ultimately suffers a worse fate and REALLY ends up with nothing is Louis Creed from Pet Sematary. in that sense i think it's a cruel book. but don't get me wrong, i still love it and always will, i just ended up feeling that Vic really got the shaft in this one.


OH MY GOD! Pet semetary was so sad, my favorite book EVER!

[TheHardcase]

it seems King must have been in a very bitter frame of mind when he wrote this book, but i guess we can't ask him since he doesn't even remember much about writing it.

And maybe that's the point. He may have been so heavily under the influence at the time that the story reflected the bitterness of his life at the time.

[staropeace]

If we miss your point that is okay,too.Devious,you are entitled in your opinion as long as you are polite and do not personally attack another poster. God love your opinion....because it is all yours and is unique in this world. Nothing wrong with being an individual. I may say I think your views are half-cracked or not....that would be my opinion. However, I think you are a bright person and your insights have value to this board. Let her rip....with all your opinions! :biggrin2:

[Liselle]

Unfortunately life is sad, this kind of thing happens in real life all the time and it could be worse the hubby could have killed himself as in what can happen in real life. I personally don't think he was feeling bitter at the time maybe it was an observation on what was read in a paper or story he had heard.....who knows, only SK knows why he wrote it the way he did.

[Rhino]

Cujo, the 10th SK book i read, just finished a few minutes ago...

I have to disagree with a lot of you (good thing its a free world) but i believe Donna got the worst of it... B4 you hang me, Just look at it this way...

Donna did a horrible thing in cheating on Vic, BUT she tried to make things right. So taking that out of the equation, don't you think she got it worse? Having your child die next to you in the car, and you are not able to do anything about it. Being bitten and seeing the sheriff killed by a rabid 200 pound dog... That's things i don't wanna see in my life... ever, things i wont know how to get over...

[Sweet One]

Did anybody mention Steve Kemp? That's the one character I wanted to die. In fact, I'm surprised Kemp wasn't dead meat in the movie.

Vic and Donna were both idiots. Sympathetic idiots who deserved better much than they got, but still idiots. What happened was largely their fault.

I don't understand why you wanted Donna to die, though. Would you really want to have to explain to Tad why mommy isn't moving or breathing any more?

[belynne333]

Devious.... don't be sorry you started this post! Just look at all the conversation you started! I think I see what you are saying, and at the very least, I definately want to go back and reread Cujo now. I often times wish for a better outcome than what some of my favorite characters or characters I feel sorry for get... what a writer to affect me that way right! The book was cruel the same way life is cruel... no judgements, it is what it is. SK definately gets kudos from me for not candy coating it and staying true to what the story had to offer!

Thanks for the thread!

[SKfan2006]

it's really cruel what the mom had to go through.

[Merlsmom]

I read Cujo years ago when my son was still small. I was curled up on the couch reading it one evening while my son was out with my husband shoeing horses. I got a call from my husband that he was taking our son to the emergency room because a dog at the farm where they were shoeing attacked him. I jumped in the car and rushed to meet them and that was the longest drive of my life. King's description of that rabid dog was all I could think about and I was thoroughly freaked out by the time I arrived. Creepy coincidence.:eek2:

OH, btw - my son ended up being fine; just needed a few stitches and after an agonizing wait we learned the dog was not rabid. Don't know what caused him to freak out on my son. (Twilight Zone theme song plays in background.)

[Nero]

she should have gone through all of that, then got a slow death through which someone should have pee'd on her face making it the last thing she tastes.

[devious1]

she should have gone through all of that, then got a slow death through which someone should have pee'd on her face making it the last thing she tastes.THANK YOU! i can't have sympathy for a woman who cheats on her husband and then tries to blame it on him. she ruined his life, and that was before the rabid dog came around and took his kid from him too.

[belynne333]

she should have gone through all of that, then got a slow death through which someone should have pee'd on her face making it the last thing she tastes.

you are so cool :love::love::rofl:

[SKfan2006]

she should have gone through all of that, then got a slow death through which someone should have pee'd on her face making it the last thing she tastes.

that's a bit harsh. but i would've rather seen an adult die than a kid or like the film where both lived.

[JohnDalglish]

she should have gone through all of that, then got a slow death through which someone should have pee'd on her face making it the last thing she tastes.

Hi,

Not like you to equivocate, Nero LOL

Long days and pleasant nights

[SKfan2006]

over the weekend i thought of something what if the police came to late and Donna didn't kill Cujo?

[Agincourt Concierge]

Dang....tough crowd here......LOL...

This was my least favorite book.....years ago when I read it.....Vic reminds me of Job....just how much more sh*t could he take???

I guess I should go back and give it another read....mayhaps I will feel differently about it.....guess I got a thing about rabid dogs....Old Yeller kind of thing......LOL....
really...it's not the dog's fault.....that in itself is a cruel part of the story....

and yes...sh*t happens in life when you least expect it.....and sometimes you have no control over it and you don't have a shovel big enough to clean it up....

[Susanne]

I loved this book...and the movie. But I was disappointed that Tad didn´t die in the movie.

[Neil W]

THANK YOU! i can't have sympathy for a woman who cheats on her husband and then tries to blame it on him. she ruined his life, and that was before the rabid dog came around and took his kid from him too.

Wow. Life in black and white must be quite something. Most of mine comes in shades of grey.

[michal]

Coming back to the topic of discussion :biggrin2: I don't think Cujo in a "cruel book" at all. No more than Desperation or Salem's Lot or The Long Walk, Pet Sematary or many other of Mr. King's books where bystanders or innocent characters in the book are... well, removed. This often include children, pets and close ones. There are tragic characters in the book - obviously (and similarly to Greek Tragedies, they are usually the ones which are doomed to continue living on with the loss), but cruel? Come on!

[Patricia A]

Personally I think Cujo got the worst of the deal, after all he only ever wanted to be a good dog.

[Mr Nobody]

Cujo is probably the only thing of SK's that makes me feel hate. I don't hate the book - that'd be daft; it's just paper and ink - and I could never hate, or even dislike, an author based on a fictional event, but I DO hate what happens to Cujo for the reason Patricia A mentions (post #47 if this isn't right beneath). And I don't even like dogs that much!

[jacobtlong]

I just finished the book today. Vic did indeed get the shaft, but that's what made me root for him even more. I wanted things to work out for him so much.

I also felt that George Bannerman got a bit of the shaft too. He was just the sheriff trying to do his job...and he was barely in the book at all! But that's why I love King. He doesn't play favorites.

[ginapenn]

I don't think the story is cruel. It's unfortunate that the kid dies but that's the way the story went. Personally, I don't think I would have waited as long as she did.

Devious, sounds as though the cheating wife struck a nerve with you! Is there a story to tell there?

SK himself says (in the book On Writing) that he doesn't remember writing Cujo-the book was written back when he had a very bad drug problem. I seriously doubt that the drug problem had an effect on, or is the reason for, such an ending. I don't want to sound cruel myself but I would hope that the story would end the way it did because that's the story that was meant to be told. SK talks about keeping it real and telling the truth in a story. Stories can't be all bunnies and rainbows and happy endings. Especially horror stories. If they did, they wouldn't have the same mystique.

I'm writing a horror novel myself right now and my main character, Frank, is going through the ringer. Not because I'm cruel but because that's how the story is being unearthed. I'm not sure how it will end but I doubt it will be a happy ending for our hero, Frank.

[Richard_B]

is Cujo cruel? I don't think so.. sad definitely.. I've just re-read it and yet I still hoped I'd misremembered it and hoped that Tad hadn't really died at the end. Cruel implies intention.. and I think the thing with Cujo is that (with the exception of Steve Kemp) the characters don't deliberately attempt to be cruel to one another... it's a series of poor choices and mischance. Perhaps the curelty is "sentencing" Donna and Vic to have to spend the rest of their lives wondering... what if?

And ultimately.. isn't the fact we all get so wrapped up in it and have opinions abou tthe characters what makes it such a terrific book?

[Ebdim9th]

I cant quite remember it right, but one of my favorite lines from the book happens to be ... and Tad, still dead... (as they put him in the ambulance, even though it was obviously already too late). If he was to go back and reread his own book now, what is Stephen K's reaction to what he wrote then, if he is indeed looking back at it kind of like an outsider, if he doesnt really remember writing it at the time?

[Sweet One]

The fact that their marraige was healing was one of the reasons I found the book disturbing. It was kind of like it took the death of their son to save their marraige, and therefore the marraige was the most important. Not that that was really what King was saying.

[nygene40]

I thought it was pitch perfect. I re-read it a couple weeks ago and was struck by how it just played out like life does sometimes. Crappy things happen, and sometimes things get way worse before they even think about getting better. It is heartbreaking, no doubt, but then life can be as well.

[GNTLGNT]

Yeah, life stinks sometimes and King never shies away from that world view, which is one of the reasons I love his stuff. He just tells the tale his own way, and you either like it or lump it-but either way, you'll never leave unaffected...

[xkittyx]

Just finished re-reading Cujo this morning. I almost cried, which I haven't done since Eddie Dean died so terribly. Poor Tad, I mean, he's just a little guy, and to be kinda traumatized by seeing the monster he's so afraid of, on top of dying slowly from dehydration... sad! Maybe it's 'cause I have a son now, and he's only 3 months old, but man! I kept imagining myself in Donna's place. I don't even know what I would've done in a situation like that. I felt terrible for Vic too, 'cause I've grown up with a cheating parent, plus I've been cheated on, and it's an awful feeling indeed. Then the stress of the whole business deal... But mostly I feel bad for poor old Cuje. None of it was his fault really. He was just a good dog doing what dogs do and was struck with a terrible disease, and he died a slow and painful death. Especially where in the end, Donna's going nuts on his body with the bat... I mean, I can understand her rage and all, but I still felt like yelling "All right already! He's dead! Leave the poor dog alone!" I think it was a good book, because it made me think, and ponder the situations, and that's what a good story should make you do. Especially if the story stays with you, a constant companion, and you think about it long after it's over.

[Pucker]

Just finished re-reading Cujo this morning. I almost cried, which I haven't done since Eddie Dean died so terribly. Poor Tad, I mean, he's just a little guy, and to be kinda traumatized by seeing the monster he's so afraid of, on top of dying slowly from dehydration... sad! Maybe it's 'cause I have a son now, and he's only 3 months old, but man! I kept imagining myself in Donna's place. I don't even know what I would've done in a situation like that. I felt terrible for Vic too, 'cause I've grown up with a cheating parent, plus I've been cheated on, and it's an awful feeling indeed. Then the stress of the whole business deal... But mostly I feel bad for poor old Cuje. None of it was his fault really. He was just a good dog doing what dogs do and was struck with a terrible disease, and he died a slow and painful death. Especially where in the end, Donna's going nuts on his body with the bat... I mean, I can understand her rage and all, but I still felt like yelling "All right already! He's dead! Leave the poor dog alone!" I think it was a good book, because it made me think, and ponder the situations, and that's what a good story should make you do. Especially if the story stays with you, a constant companion, and you think about it long after it's over.


If an author ever told me that this response was not exactly what he wanted, I wouldn't believe him.

[ginapenn]

When it comes to bad things happening, when it rains it pours.

[Pucker]

I can't help but think that the "cruelty" of Cujo is happenstance. The entire tragedy is an incredible confluence of random occurences that all add up in such a way as to produce this monumental horror from nothing more than a coincidental arrangement of perfectly mundane events. Nothing that happens could be said to be particularly extraordinary, taken by itself. But strung together in a melange of bad luck and timing, the whole is wildly more terrifying than the sum of its parts.

"For the want of a nail . . . " if you know that one.

[Mr.Bobbo]

Well,

I find the original poster spot-on about the true nature of CUJO. If you pare it down to its bare bones, you have a basic formula for Tragedy, same as FIRESTARTER and DEADZONE, which always completed this particular "trilogy" of works (and no, I haven't missed the titles CHRISTINE and PET SEMATARY, which follow a "same-yet-very-different" formula of mainstream Horror, by my definition). One looks back and remembers, if you read these works as they were released, after THE STAND: You've got these three, intermittently written with two "Bachman" titles, and they're a very cynical pair, ROADWORK and THE RUNNING MAN, and...one must reflect that perhaps the late 70s and early 80s were a dark, reflective time for our Steve...to the point that he was always, ALWAYS drawn by that "outer Bad" that we've seen time-and-again, as in his second and third published works, but always in the guise of "them," the Dallas Police--or, the Government as we saw it in those days.
In fact, though I really DO also find the cruelty in CUJO that the original poster does, I feel, upon further recollection, that this is where the "outer Bad" was finally drawn full circle to the "inner Bad," as in his first published work, CARRIE--and, though SALEM'S LOT draws from an obvious horror from outside the archetypical small town USA, the allegorical horror in that novel has really been alive and awake all along. Even in THE SHINING, though we're dealt the wild card of the Overlook Hotel as an outside force, there is still so much turmoil and self-destructive behavior and denial in all three of the Torrance family that it is, though readily corrupted by the catalyst that is the Overlook and its past, still a story of the "inner Bad," by Kind standards.
What King did with CUJO was to once again find that singular point of view that showed us that sometimes, there IS no Big Bad. Sometimes, if we're not careful, we can allow absolutely life-shattering, irrevocable loss and horror to occur. No? And it's a paranoid's list of Things to Do: Keep your pets and know where they are, don't screw around on your mate, know the product you're promoting, keep your automobile maintained, make appointments before you arrive for service, don't drink so much, don't humor your childrens' fears, don't, and don't, and don't. It's a cautionary tale, but perhaps the most Human that Steve did, between THE SHINING and the composition of ...SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. But this reader thinks it must've been quite a noticeable, and cruel, transition between the writing of CUJO and the Epic Adventure and Big Brother's Watching novels that preceded it...and probably, being King, he did not make it easy on his characters in relearning how to speak on the virtues and foibles of Family and the Small Town again. In fact, perhaps he found that, in order to tell his story of an errant, diseased St.Bernard who causes unnecessary and irrevocable (read: CRUEL) harm to some poor, peaceful people, he had no choice. Witness the first paragraph's transition from the Johnny Smith story to the passage about the "monster in the closet," and with watchful interpretation, it seems clear enough.
And, though it's a cruel presentation, to me it was necessary, and artfully done. CUJO is a transition piece, and will always "suffer" in the mainstream readers' assessment; but if you know Steve, it's an artful, engaging means to a whole new era, and so, so vital to what the man was trying to accomplish in his own craft, at the time.


Okay,
Bobbo

[Evil Queen]

i just finished rereading Cujo...i cried so much in the end! :down: the last time i read this was more than 10 yrs. ago, before i even had children, so i think then the ending was insignificant, just an ending...but now, after having my four children w/me now & always thinking i would die first before letting them die, the ending of this book just broke my heart!!! i felt bad for Cujo & Tad, the most innocent victims, each only wanting to please his owners/parents, but victims of the most cruel circumstances that life could throw to them. i too wish it had been the mother instead of Tadder, she already had a chance at life & she messed it up herself while the little boy was barely starting to live his life, but perhaps SK thought to have Tad be taken away while he was still innocent & leave the mother in her living hell forever...and since i'm an animal lover, i cried for the dog, who really only wanted to do what his owners wanted of him, but was stricken w/that terrible disease that destroyed his mind, he didn't intentionally kill for joy of it, as horrible human beings so often do....this is a great book, so sad but it does stay w/you...i found i kept checking on my closet door to make sure it didn't open by itself! :blush:

[Dave Sartin]

yeah i'm gonna start reading cujo tomorrow. can't wait!!! :smile2:

[ginapenn]

I liked the ending. I thought it was appropriate and exactly the way it would go in real life. That may sound terribly morbid but it's true.

[fromTull]

When I read Cujo years ago, before I had kids, it was just a "sad" ending. Post kids--Heart wringing. I just re-read The Gunslinger for the first time since my kids, and it was worse!! " . . .bless this camp with fire"..that bit of mimicry on J's behalf brought my mind to my own children, and how I could be a better parent . . .and who hasn't felt like an undeserving fraud of a parent at times? I think SK is FREAKISHLY observant in real life. He obviously knows the various routes loss takes to wound us. Mixes and matches as needed to make it most emotional. I am staying the hell away from Pet Sematary for a while . . .it was sad enough before kids. Can't imagine now.

[MistahJ]

The world is a very cruel place...That's probably why I really like Stephen King books because no one really ever gets their happy ending

[JohnDalglish]

The world is a very cruel place...That's probably why I really like Stephen King books because no one really ever gets their happy ending

Hi,

Yeah, what was it he said?

'No-one ever really does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves, don't we?'

Long days and pkleasant nights

[Sweet One]

'No-one ever really does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves, don't we?'



That sounds like a "social responsibility" argument for Naturalism.

[MistahJ]

'No-one ever really does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves, don't we?'

Exactly