Carter Thibodeau and Peter Randolph

[Flayer]

I started re-reading through Under the Dome again this week, and I was pretty surprised over how much Peter Randolph gets degraded throughout the story. By about halfway through and then only more so until the end, Big Jim, Barbara, and everyone else in the book refers to how stupid and incompetent Randolph is in every sentence they spend with him. If you went by their descriptions of him, he is borderline retarded.

But Randolph seemed like he was actually a lot more useful in the beginning. He's actually fairly competent at his job, and Big Jim even listens to his advice once in a while. He actually comes up with a few ideas of his own, some of which aren't that bad, and he actually understands how Jim works and plays along with his plans fairly well. His bad traits are mainly forgetfulness and being a pushover. He actually gets compared to playing the role of Hermann Goering to Rennie as Hitler. But as time goes on, it seems like King took Rennie's opinion of Randolph to heart and just made him stupider and stupider, to the point where people consider him dumber than Andy Sanders.

Carter Thibodeau was another very interesting character in the story to me, and after seeing how important he became I was watching his character development more closely in the beginning this time. It's actually a pretty interesting question to me - how smart is Carter? It's pretty obvious that he's book-dumb as hell, but I was wondering if he really was as clever and cunning as Jim thought of him. Because at first Jim thought that Randolph was actually a pretty competent assistant, but then got sick of him pretty quick. I was wondering if Jim's perception of Carter was really true, or if he would just see him as being stupid like Randolph if they had survived long enough.

[GNTLGNT]

Flayer-they were both well drawn characters, but like many of "the King's men"-were doomed from the get-go. They were just chewed up and spit out in the Big Jim World Domination Machine...

[LongLegged]

OMGoodness, this book was so good. One of Stephens BEST works since The Green Mile. I couldn't wait for Cater and Peter to both get theres. I mean, how can you be that stupid in believing EVERYTHING that Jim Rennie was spouting...smh. I mean that man was the "devil" in diguise. OMGoodness, I couldn't wait for them to get picked off one by one. They killed that town with "knowing" it all. Goes to show, that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket.

[Shigecki]

I believed the Carter character until he turned off the light in the bomb shelter. A little too convenient.

[HarmoniumGuard]

I believed the Carter character until he turned off the light in the bomb shelter. A little too convenient.

You know, I would agree with you, but I think given the time, stress, and the events that had taken place, a poor choice in judgment seemed inevitable.

[thsch10785]

I noticed that on page 611 when Junior and Carter where about to set the newspaper office on fire it said "Carter was shot by Junior in the eye. How come Carter Thibodeau became Big Jim´s bodyguard on page 706 and nothing more was mentioned on the dead body after the fire was put out????? thsch10785(at)freenet.de

[nongermane]

I don't know if Rennie found Randolph stupid- I think he found him too strong to fully manipulate in the end. To follow the bullying metaphor, Rennie was the ultimate kid bully, and Randolph was someone trying to get into some of the bullys power on the playground by joining in.
But, Randolph's last act was in defiance of Rennie. I don't think it makes him smart, I think that was his way of gaining some power away from the ultimate bully. He wanted to be the head bully- not just the follower anymore.

Carter the same. Rennie didn't like Carter because of his was "smart." He liked him because of his ability to blindly follow. As soon as Carter would have shown an independent streak in front of Rennie- I don't think he would have cared for Carter either.

[blurbol]

nongermane, this is a really good point I think.

Rennie didn't like Carter because of his was "smart." He liked him because of his ability to blindly follow. As soon as Carter would have shown an independent streak in front of Rennie- I don't think he would have cared for Carter either.

Carter blindly followed Rennie because of the father like comments he made towards him, and the apparent lack of a role model in Carter's life. I don't think Carter was smart or stupid, but just had a similar way of thinking to Rennie. Given time either Rennie would have become bored of his new errand boy, or Carter would have wanted a bit more of the action and crossed big Jim in the wrong way. Either way the gruesome twosome were doomed from the get go.

[Ladyluck]

This was vision that Junior had in his head do to the tumor. Reread the very next few paragraphs.

Carter died in the fall out shelter by Jim Rennie's hand.

[mrblonde]

I liked the way Carter was written. I only had 2 complaints. 1) He gave Big Jim the envelope. That would have been his ace in the hole had they survived long enough for the dome to lift & 2)turning out the lights.
Both went against his nature.
Randolph was a total idiot to me. His act of going against what Jim said at the end proved this. Jim kept him safe & on the right track the entire time.