Books Worth Reading

Cover of Under the Dome: A Novel

Under the Dome, Stephen King (2009)

If you read Under the Dome literally, the premise gets a bit silly and has some fairly big holes. If you read it metaphorically, it becomes a bleak commentary on human existence. Spoilers follow!

The novel opens when a mysterious, impenetrable force field abruptly encloses the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine. While the origins of the Dome, as it comes to be called, are unknown, its effects are instantaneous. No one gets in or out.

Immediately, the local demagogue seizes the opportunity to effect a coup and put in place a private army of young thugs. Without threat of consequences, the new police start abusing their power right away, committing rapes, murder and worse (yes, worse). Townspeople start falling like flies from stress, accidents, murder and suicide. The air inside the Dome quickly gets dirty and stale, and the temperature goes up in a clear reference to global warming. In a very short time (perhaps too short), all the rules of civilized society are thrown out the window in Chester’s Mill.

In some ways, the novel follows the typical Stephen King pattern when it comes to his “small town in jeopardy” stories (see also It, The Tommyknockers, Desperation, etc.). Children have strange visions that foretell a horrific event, a typical King trope. King provides plenty of information about what this event will be, puncturing some of the suspense he might have built in anticipating it. But when it comes, it is indeed horrific — apocalyptic, even.

What King has done in Under the Dome is put our society under a magnifying glass. He has sped up time and exaggerated the effects, but it is not difficult to find parallels. “Under the Dome” no one considers the long term. They don’t band together to solve their looming problems — food, clean air and energy will not last long under these circumstances — but rather focus on immediate gains. Or they turn into the frightened mob, willing to believe any ridiculous lie in exchange for a little comfort and security. I was not alone in finding parallels with our current political climate; the New York Times’ review also zeroed in on them. The end result is that friends and neighbors turn on one another, toss away their compassion and humanity, and eventually annihilate themselves. And they do it very quickly.

King often brings religion into his books, and his conception of a benevolent spiritual force — which he usually refers to as “the White” — that inspires ordinary people to stand up, be true and do extraordinary things in combating evil is a strong theme in such novels as The Stand, Desperation and The Talisman. But in Under the Dome, King’s depiction of God is much different: a dispassionate, distance, remorseless being, child-like in its wanton cruelty, playing with human beings as if they were ants or flies. This is not a comforting image to leave readers with, and I closed the book feeling more than a little disturbed.

Under the Dome has its problems, of course. It is a massive book, over 1,000 pages. There is a huge cast of characters, and it sometimes becomes difficult to tell folks apart. People behave in ways that seem a little too pat; these characters don’t have a lot of nuance to them. Long-time King readers will recognize recycled characters and plot devices. The language gets a bit purple at times.

But it is all in service of King’s overarching message. Trouble is, I don’t think that’s a message many of us will want to hear.