A grim text.

[Mr. Sir]

After recentley re-reading Cujo I was struck by how vicious the ending is. It's rather nihilistic in the way it tears apart the bedrock of any society; the family unit. Childhood fears are manifested in reality. The ending, that rolls out quickly after a sustained period of tension, felt like a kick in the gut. I felt, with the chance of rescue on the horizon, the rug is completely pulled form under us. The reunion and redemption of the family, our expectations of a catharthic resolution, are denied to us. A quite brilliant ending in my opinion.

I also felt that the death of the sheriff, Bannerman, was the most senseless death in the text. A good old boy caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. I felt distressed by the reality of the irrational and illogical nature of evil and violence and the fact that it can be visited upon us at any time.

Apologies to the administrator. Not sure how to add spolier tags yet

[Moderator]

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[GNTLGNT]

I felt distressed by the reality of the irrational and illogical nature of evil and violence and the fact that it can be visited upon us at any time.

No-one is sacred or safe in a SK novel-much like in our own lives...we do the best we can to protect and watch over those we love-but in the end, is it enough? We can only pray that it is, and Cujo is but a reflection of this bleak reality...

[PatInTheHat]

Rabies is evil?
Huh, and here all this time I thought it to be just a deadly pathogen doin' it's thing, though to be honest, I've never taken the time to have a conversation with one to judge it's character, or lack there of.
Hmm, I wonder, does that make me pathogenically bigoted?

Personally, I thought it to be an excellent snapshot of a confluence of unfortunate events, that led to a veerrry bad couple of days in the life of a few ordinary people, making everyday unfortunate mistakes...and of course, one poor pooch gone plumb batty.
Wacky circumstances leading to unnecessary tragedy happen every single day in such a wide variety of ways, and yet societies and the family unit the world over still stand, is what I'm thinkin'...get your pets vaccinated is the true moral of this story, is what I'm sayin'.

[JellybeanJay]

All I can say is that I have never looked at St Bernards the same way after finishing this novel.

[mojomofo]

It can't be just me; I liked the sucker punch ending! Evil in it's many forms is always present and waiting, why shouldn't written works reflect this?

[Haunted]

I couldl never finish Cujo *sacrilege sacrilege, I know* but I cannot stand the idea of a dog going bad. And this poor creature was diseased not through his own fault.

[Cowboy]

When reading Sai King, we often realize that really bad things could happen to us and it isn't always going to be quick or pretty.

[Mr. Sir]

Personally, I thought it to be an excellent snapshot of a confluence of unfortunate events, that led to a veerrry bad couple of days in the life of a few ordinary people, making everyday unfortunate mistakes...and of course, one poor pooch gone plumb batty.
Wacky circumstances leading to unnecessary tragedy happen every single day in such a wide variety of ways, and yet societies and the family unit the world over still stand, is what I'm thinkin'...get your pets vaccinated is the true moral of this story, is what I'm sayin'.[/QUOTE]


I do agree with your assessment of things to a cetrain degree. On the face of it, this is a random series of events that conspire to enmesh an unlucky few. However, I would digress from your point given the fact that we are in the territory of King, and we are definitely made draw the conclusion that supernatural elements are indirectly, if not directly involved.

At the very begining we are reminded of Frank Dodds and his crimes. It does say it had little to do with the contraction of rabies, via a bat bite, by Cujo. Yet later, Bannerman, who is about to be mauled to death, sees an image of Dodds as the dog approaches. These are not random associations, but deliberate connections. Tad has his experiences with the monster in the closet, an experience shared by his father. Again, this goes beyond a rational explanation. If it was just Tad, we could dismiss it as childish superstition. Yet as a shared experience between father and son we have to conclude that something (for want of a better term) evil is at work in the narrative.

With regards to the family unit, i was drawing attention to the fact that King subverts a formulaic narrative approach by denying us the reunion of the family.

[MistahJ]

One of the things I love about Cujo is that it doesn't end happy for anyone...The reader wants things to work out but it doesn't