A Study On The Image Of Parents In Stephen King's Horror Fictions

Stephen King,the master of American contemporary horror fictions,is good at depicting 'Domestic Horror'.With the 'nuclear family' as the background in contemporary American society,he has created a variety of parental images in a large number of short horror stories,medium-length horror novels and full-length horror fictions.This paper takes the parental images written by Stephen King as the research object,and probes into the deep connotation behind the shaping of these parental images by Stephen King.The introduction introduces the research status of Stephen King in China and in Great Britain and America,as well as the significance and innovation of this thesis,then points out that the research on the types of characters in Stephen King's many horror fictions needs to be improved.The body consists of three chapters: the first chapter divides the parental images in Stephen King's many horror fictions into six categories and makes a general and specific analysis of their characteristics.The second chapter first studies the characteristics of Stephen King's parental image building : First,Stephen King uses 'direct definition' in large doses in his writing,and pays much attention to the description of characters' manners and mental activities in vivid detail in his horror fictions.Second,most of the parents are 'ordinary figures in unconventional situations',some of the fathers' images reflect the author's own experience.The third chapter studies the literary and realistic significance of the parents' images in Stephen King's horror fictions from two aspects.The first aspect is on how Stephen King uses the image of parents to write 'Domestic Horror' and promote the development of the stories.The second aspect is on the various kinds of America's family problems and social problems which are reflected in Stephen king's horror fictions.The conclusion considers about the limitation and imbalance of Stephen King's preference to write horror fictions with family problems,then points out that there remains a long long way to go for the salvation to those children who grew up in problem families whether inside Stephen king's horror fictions or in reality.