The Body by Stephen King

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The Body
Stephen King
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About the Author
Stephen King
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947,
the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth
Pillsbury King. He made his first professional
short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery
Stories. In the fall of 1973, he began teaching
high school English classes at Hampden Academy,
the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing
in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued
to produce short stories and to work on novels.
He had to leave teaching and write full-time. He
has since published over 40 books and has become
one of the world's most successful writers.
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The most important things are the hardest
to say. They are the things you get ashamed of,
because the words diminish them-words shrink that
seem limitless when they were in your head to no
more than a living size when they are brought
out. But its more than that, Isnt it? The most
important things lie close to wherever your heart
is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your
enemies would love to steal away. And you make
revelations that cost you dearly only to have
people look at you in a funny way , not
understanding what youve said at all , or why
you thought it was so important that you almost
cried when you were saying it. Thats the worst ,
I think when a secret stays locked in within not
for want of a teller but for want of a
understanding ear.

Stephen King,The Body(1982)
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Major Characters
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CHRIS
Chris is Gordies best friend and is always the
leader..He doesnt really have that big of a
chance in life. His fathers a drunk, his brothers
Frank and Freddy are criminals. His brother
Eyeball is the towns criminal. Everybody knows
Chris is gonna turn out bad. Even Chris
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Teddy
Teddy is a really good friend of Gordie. He is
the craziest kid gordie hangs out with. From
train dogging to jumping of 30 foot pine trees.
Teddy does it all. When Teddy was 8 his father
(who had been stricken with mental problems
during world war 2) who had fits of rage held
Teddys ear to a stove and almost burned it off.
Teddy Didnt have a good chance in life , he was
lacking good sight and hearing.
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Vern
Vern is the youngest of the 4 boys. His
brother is in a gang with Eyeball Chambers and
Ace Merril. Vern is the cautionary one, the
scared one. Vern hates the outdoors. Hed rather
spend the day inside waching the mickey mouse
club. At the beginning of the school year he
buried a quart jar of pennies under his porch.
Hes been looking for those pennies for 9 months.
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Ace's Gang
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Minor Characters
-Dennis( Gordies older brother)-Gordies
Dad--Gordies Mom--Ray Brower--Larry
Hogan--Bob Corneliel--Principle McNealy-
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SETTINGS
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Marke
DELI
SALE
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CASTLE ROCK
BUDDY HOLLY
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MARKET
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The Tracks
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The Junk Yard
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Plot
Four friends venture off to find the body of a
missing boy named Ray Brower . The obstacles they
pass bring them closer together as friends. They
first start out looking for the kid for fame and
fortune. But, at the end of the book they figure
out that taking the body wasnt right at all. It
Kind of shows you the innocence of the fifties.
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• A Older Gordie, cries in car because of something
  he reads in the newspaper.
• The story goes back to 1960 and a younger Gordie
  and his friends are in the tree house.
• Vern runs in a tells them what he heard from his
  brother when he was talking about the body of Ray
  Brower being found by himself and Charlie Hogan.
• Gordie goes home and packs, he daydreams about
  his brother.
• The boys run off to find Ray Brower's body.
• They dodge a train on a bridge.
• They run through the swamp and get covered in
  leaches.
• They find the body, Ace and his gang show up.
  Gordie shoots a gun into the air to scare Ace.
• The boys run home through the night, they call an
  anonymous phone call telling where the body is.
• At the end, You find out why Gordies older self
  was crying, Chris had got stabbed breaking up a
  fight at a Portland fast food restaurant.
• At the end you find out that only Gordie was
  alive because, Chris got stabbed, Verns
  Apartment caught on fire when he was sleeping.
  And Teddy died in the Army.

What Leads to Climax
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What I would rate this.
I would Rate this book, a 10/10 because it about
coming of age, I like how it talks about these 4
boys, who are completely different yet are the
best of friends, it shows the way young teenage
boys act but still captures the innocence of the
fifties, I really enjoyed this book. I would
recommend this book to boys more than girls. But
if your into adventure and coming of age. This
book is perfect for you.
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In 1979 the body was published , in 1986 it was
turned into a movie. The book was much better, it
showed a better depiction of Gordie then in the
movie , renamed Stand By Me. Id recommend the
book. But if youre a movie kind of person, this
movie is also very good.
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More Works by Stephen King
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THE END