ELEVATION
by: stephen king
click on a visual below to see its significance!
Book Diagnoses (summary)
“Elevation” by Stephen King is a novel that follows the incredibly interesting life of the main character Scott Carey. It starts with Carey losing tremendous amounts of weight daily, and goes through his experiences with Castle Rock’s well known lesbian couple, changing his fellow citizens’ opinions on them. While not knowing why he’s losing weight but looking the same, him and a trustworthy colleague, Dr. Bob Ellis and Scott do research to discover what could be causing his loss of weight. They start to understand that eventually, the scale will read 0lbs, and that they will have to say goodbye to each other. He learns to live life to the fullest until his “zero day,” (when his weight finally hits zero).
“Gravity is the anchor that pulls us down into our graves.” (King 140)
This quote is important because it refers to a metaphor that plays a major part on the theme in the story. In a way, it’s kind of ironic that Scott had a lack of gravity, and in turn died or got “taken to his grave” by losing gravity. But, this could be a metaphor for a lot of things. One thing in particular is the weight of hardships, or trauma, or mental health. All of those things have the potential to drag you down and affect your motivation, and dragging you to your “grave” or your literal grave.
Seca Scale
"It's as if you've got some kind of weight-repelling force-field around you" (King 28). This quote is relevant because it sparked the beginning of their investigation into what was wrong with Scott. At the beginning of the novel, Dr. Bob mentions how this particular scale (seca scale) is the finest medical scale in existence. Meaning, it’s accuracy is on point. But when Scott gets weighed and nothing changes, suspicion starts to grow on what could possibly be causing him to lose weight but still look heavy set.
Divorce
In Scott’s past marriage, him and his wife Nora purchased a cat (Bill D. Cat) that becomes his companion, and a house that Scott kept after the divorce. Without staying in the house they shared, Scott would’ve never met Deidre and Missy, and tried to be friendly with Deidre and mend their relationship. Scott and Deidre had conflicts when it came to Dee’s dogs and Scotts yard. I can relate to this because in the past I’ve had conflicts with people due to location, but growing with yourself and others, not making assumptions, and solving problems mutually can mend relationships similar to Scott and Dee’s.
Christmas Tree
The Christmas tree is significant to the story because of its effects on the time line. When Scott’s neighbor Dee won the annual turkey trot with Scott’s assistance, which lets them to form a bond. After she won, she was given the opportunity to light the towns Christmas tree, which brought attention to her and her wife’s restaurant. Giving them customers and boosting her revenue. With that came the flood of acceptance the town of Castle rock began to show Dee and Missy, which connected the bond between Scott and Dee even more. Ultimately, the Christmas tree lighting was the start of a new beginning for the both of them (business ands friendship wise).
Space
Scott decided to plan a ‘send-off’ for whatever was to happen to him after he reached 0lbs. When Scott reached his zero day, and weighed nothing, he was finally able to float up towards the sky and into space completely weightless. As he floats into the starry night sky, he lights a firework. While floating, he doesn’t feel sadness as most would. He feel elevated and at peace with himself. When reading this part of the novel, I also felt at peace, and was imagining what the sky he was floating into looked like, and immediately thought of an aerial view of the galaxy.
"Everyone should have this, he thought, and perhaps, at the end, everyone does. Perhaps in their time of dying, everyone rises." (King 145)