Course paper analysis of Apocalyptic Novel genre in literary activity of Stefan King basing on his novel "The Stand"

3. S.K'S " THE STAND" AND ITS INFLUENCE TO THE WORLD LITERATURE

Castle Rock (sometimes referred to as the Rock) is a fictional town appearing in Stephen King's fictional Maine topography, providing the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. Castle Rock first appeared in King's 1979 novel The Dead Zone and has since been referred to or used as the primary setting in many other works by King.

As a native of Durham, Maine, King was inspired by his hometown when creating Castle Rock. The town name is taken from the fictional mountain fort in William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies.
Other notable fictional towns that King has used as the central setting in more than one work include Derry and Jerusalem's Lot.
The population of Castle Rock was 1,280 by 1959 and around 1,500 in Needful Things. According to the book cover, Needful Things was "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 & Dreamscapes. This story, according to King, ⁶serves as an epilogue to Needful Things.
In Needful Things, Castle Rock is placed 18 miles southwest of South Paris. In the anthology film Creep show (1982), written by King, a sign at the end of "The Lonesome Death of Jody Merrill" puts Portland at 37 miles, and Boston at 188 miles. "Weeds", the 1976 short story on which "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" was based, was set in New Hampshire.
Geographically, this puts Castle Rock within 37 miles of Portland, Maine. This region could include real places such as Durham, Lisbon, Danville, Auburn, Lewiston, Bridgton, and maybe even Sabots. A map on King's official website places Castle Rock in Oxford County, in the vicinity of Woodstock. The works in which Castle Rock appears place the town in the fictional "Castle County", which also includes such fictional towns as Castle Lake and Castle View. The location of Castle Rock may also be related to Marblehead, which has a park by the same name, but most likely not.
Part of the Castle Rock area is underlain by limestone. It makes the water hard and hosts at least one bat-infested cave unknown to the inhabitants, as noted in Cujo.
Besides Castle Rock and the oft-used Derry and Jerusalem's Lot, King has created other fictional Maine towns. These include Chamberlain in Carrie; Chester's Mill in Under the Dome; Haven in The Tommyknockers; Little Tall Island in Dolores Claiborne and Storm of the Century; Harlow in Revival; Tarkers Mills in Cycle of the Werewolf, and Ludlow (unrelated to the real Maine town of Ludlow) in Pet Sematary and The Dark HalfGeorge Bannerman is the sheriff of Castle Rock, appearing in The Dead Zone, Cujo, and "The Body". In The Dead Zone, Bannerman, after years of failing to catch the local serial killer the Castle Rock Strangler, approaches Johnny Smith to help catch the Strangler. Bannerman is horrified to learn the Strangler is, in reality, Deputy Frank Dodd, whom he viewed as a surrogate son. The two men corner Dodd in his house, where he commits suicide.
In Cujo, Bannerman helps organize the search for Donna and Tad Trenton, who are currently missing, and unbeknownst to anyone, trapped at the Camber house by the titular rabid Saint Bernard. Suspicious when there are no leads to their location and inspired by his previous investigation with Smith and the Frank Dodd case, Bannerman checks at the Camber house and discovers Donna and Tad. Before he can phone in this discovery, Cujo appears and viciously mauls and disembowels him.
Bannerman was portrayed by Tom Skerritt in The Dead Zone and Sandy Ward in Cujo. In the television adaptation of The Dead Zone, Bannerman is merged with the character of Walt Hazlett to form the character Sheriff Walt Bannerman, portrayed by Chris Bruno.
In February 2017, Hulu announced they were partnering with J. J. Abrams and Stephen King to create a limited series entitled Castle Rock. Later that month, Hulu issued a ten-episode order for the series, with production set to begin at a later date.
It was also revealed that the series would bring together characters and situations from throughout King's entire canon. Filming for the series began in August 2017.The small Western Massachusetts town of Orange served as a stand in for filming scenes set in Castle Rock.
The series premiered on Hulu on July 25, 2018. In August 2018, Hulu announced that they have renewed the series for a second season,which premiered on October 23, 2019.
The town of Castle Rock made its first onscreen appearance in the 1983 film Cujo. In that film, Mendocino and Santa Rosa, California stood in for Castle Rock. That same year, Castle Rock appeared onscreen again in The Dead Zone. This time, the Maine town was portrayed by locations in and around Niagara Falls, Ontario, including the Screaming Tunnel and Queen's Royal Park in neighboring Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Stand by Me (1986), a film adaptation of King's 1982 novella The Body, was the next film in which Castle Rock appeared. However, in this version of the story, Castle Rock is located in the state of Oregon. Filming took place in Oregon as well as California, with locations including Brownsville, Oregon and Lake Britton in Shasta County, California. Director Rob Reiner later named his production company Castle Rock Entertainment, which subsequently produced several adaptations of King's works.
In addition to appearing onscreen, the town of Castle Rock is also referenced in several films. The first such reference came in the 1982 film Creepshow, which was Stephen King's first produced screenplay. At the end of the film's "The Lonesome Death of JordyVerrill" segment, a directional sign shows Castle Rock located five miles away.
In the 1990 film adaptation of Graveyard Shift, the character Jane Wisconsky tells John Hall she is originally from Castle Rock.
⁷The screenplay to the 1992 film Sleepwalkers was also written by King. In the film, the sheriff calls for backup from Castle Rock. However, this version of Castle Rock is located in Indiana.
In the 2007 film adaptation of King's novella The Mist (1980), David Drayton reads a newspaper called The Castle Rock Times
Frank Dodd is a deputy serving under Sheriff George Bannerman, while also moonlighting as the Castle Rock Strangler, a serial killer who rapes and murders women, who appears in The Dead Zone novel, and is referenced in almost all stories set in Castle Rock. Dodd uses his involvement in the investigation to keep track of its progress and avoid capture. After Dodd murders a nine-year-old girl, Bannerman brings in psychic Johnny Smith to assist in the investigation. Smith discovers Dodd is the killer, and Bannerman and Smith corner Dodd in his home, where he commits suicide and writes “I CONFESS” in lipstick on his neck. By the time of Cujo, Frank has become a local boogeyman to the children of Castle Rock. Tad Trenton's closet is haunted by a malevolent spirit that claims to be Dodd's ghost and threatens to murder the boy. The ghost later appears before the boy's father Vic while he sits in Tad's room.
Dodd is portrayed by Nicholas Campbell in The Dead Zone film and by Michael Rogers in the television series.
Cujo is a Saint Bernard owned by the Camber family and the titular character of Cujo, and is referenced in several of King's other works. Cujo is initially a playful dog that is friendly to every person he meets, although rabbits drive him wild. One day he chases a rabbit into a cave and is bitten by a rabid bat. No one notes much significance to the wound, but as it festers Cujo becomes depressed (people think he's just bothered by the summer heat), then goes mad. He becomes convinced that humans are responsible for his pain, and this prompts him to go on a murderous rampage. After murdering Joe Camber and Gary Pervier, Cujo traps Donna and Tad Trenton inside their broken-down car after they come for auto repairs. Cujo refuses to allow them to leave, and continually tries to break in and kill them. When Donna leaves the car to escape, Cujo bites her repeatedly, though she manages to evade death, and Cujo continues to keep a watchful eye over the car. Eventually, Sheriff George Bannerman arrives and attempts to phone in his discovery of the two, only for Cujo to disembowel him. Donna grabs Bannerman's revolver and shoots Cujo, and then impales him in the eye with a broken baseball bat.
In Needful Things, Polly Chalmers, while at the now-abandoned Camber home, encounters Cujo's malevolent and restless spirit, which chases her out of the farm.
Norris Ridgewick is a deputy sheriff of Castle County, who served under Alan Pangborn and later succeeded him as sheriff. Ridgewick serves a minor role in The Dark Half as comic relief. He reappears as a main character in Needful Things, being one of those manipulated by Leland Gaunt into helping him drive the town into chaos. After realizing his part in it, Ridgewick initially attempts suicide, but instead decides to help restore order and plays a crucial part in stopping Gaunt. Ridgewick was portrayed by Zachary Mott in The Dark Half, Ray McKinnon in Needful Things, and Timothy John Smith in the television series Castle Rock. He also makes a brief appearance in Bag of Bone