Sep 14 2009
I Just Finshed King’s The Stand and I Think the Ending Sucked
I grew up reading Stephen King, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the guy. I’ve read tons of his novels - Misery, Pet Semetary, Cujo, Eyes of the Dragon, The Bachman Books, just to name a few - but I never got around to reading The Stand. Many people have told me that The Stand is one of, if not the, best novels King has written, and at over 800 pages, I knew reading it would be quite an investment of time. I think King is a damn good writer. Don’t get me wrong, he’s no F. Scott Fitzgerald or even Bret Easton Ellis, but he’s a helluva lot better than the Dean Koontzes and John Grishams out there, too. So how did The Stand turn out? I was more than just a little disappointed. Keep reading to find out why. Major spoilers, obviously.
As is the case in most of King’s novels, the characters in The Stand have depth and feel like real people, complete with flaws, quirks, and even accents. I think part of the reason I disliked the ending so much - more on that in just a bit - is because I had grown to really care about the characters. I was fully invested in many of their fates. Would Larry Underwood find redemption after spending his whole life an an arrogant jerk? Would Stu Redman, a simply dude from East Texas, become one of the saviors of humanity? Because the characters were so well-defined and seemed so real, the ending of The Stand totally undermined all that King had built up. OK, so let’s get to the ending itself…
Randall Flagg - one of the coolest fictional villains in recent memory - has imprisoned Larry Underwood and Ralph Brentner in a pair of cages outside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. A crowd of Flagg’s followers gather around, anticipating Larry and Ralph being literally pulled apart. The prisoners are at Flagg’s mercy, and all they can do is pray to God that things end well. One of Flagg’s followers - Whitney - stands up to Flagg and, full of fear, tells him that what Flagg is doing has gone way too far. Other members of the crowd agree, but they’re too scared of Flagg to say anything. A savant of sorts and also a follower of Flagg, Trashcan Man arrives before the executions are carried out. Trash has brought with him an atomic bomb that he found in the desert, presenting it to Flagg and hoping to make amends with him (Trash had previously sabotaged many of Flagg’s assets, including helicopters).
Flagg, who is much more than a man - you could say he is the personification of evil or, in The Stand, an Antichrist figure - emits a small, blue ball of electricity from his left index finger. The crowd gasps as the ball moves toward Whitney. It scorches Whitney’s skin and kills him before hovering in the air and increasing in size. Ralph screams to Larry to look at the ball, claiming that it is the Hand of God (and Larry thinks that it does indeed look like the Hand of God) before the ball moves down toward the atomic bomb. The bomb is detonated and everyone is Las Vegas, righteous and unrighteous alike, is killed. There’s a bit of resolution regarding Stu Redman, Tom Cullen, Frannie Goldsmith and the rest of the Free Zone, but as for the big climax, that’s it. Over 700 pages of buildup to a final confrontation, and essentially all we get is a big fat Deus ex machina.
So what does the ending mean? Frankly, I think King invested so much time in his characters and the final confrontation between the members of the Free Zone and Flagg’s people in Vegas that he didn’t know how to end the story. And this isn’t an uncommon aspect of a lot of King’s stories - the set up is terrific, the characters are fleshed out, but the story totally falls apart at the end. In fact, in On Writing, King himself states that he creates his characters, puts them in interesting situations, and then simply writes. I imagine that must have been the process here. Why would the Hand of God come from Flagg himself? What was the point of the members of the Free Zone traveling to Vegas in the first place? King isn’t big on metaphor (and if he is, it’s high school-level metaphor, like a Christ figure), and so I take his ending to be fairly straightforward.
I have no regrets about reading The Stand, as the journey itself was enjoyable. That said, I found myself incredibly disappointed with the ending. King built up a huge, climactic confrontation, and in just a few pages, he nonsensically created a phenomenon that wasn’t remotely symbolic. Essentially, King wrote a giant escape hatch into his novel. Maybe someone can help me interpret the ending, but I’m pretty sure that’s all there is to it. In fact, after I finished, I called two friends who I knew had read The Stand, too, and they both admitted being quite let down. For those of you who’ve read The Stand, what did you think? Were you as disappointed as I was?
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I’m a big fan of King. However, his best writing, IMO, has been done under the Richard Bachman disguise. The Stand ending is pretty much the status quo of King endings. The Dark Tower was, much like you said, a great journey but as far as the ending goes, meh.
Is it that the endings are bad, or that there’s no real way for him to end something that is so good? What would have been an acceptable ending, another 300 pages of redemption stories? Did you see the end of LOTR(movie, sadly)? It took 45 minutes of 8 different “endings.”
The ending was perfect. Have you read the Dark Tower series? Theres a seven book journey with what I am guessing you would deem a bad ending. Endings are just that, the end of the story. I dont know what you expect to happen. I think King got across what he wanted to say, and told an excellent story.
@ ComfortableMadness
I LOVE the Bachman Books; The Long Walk is one of my favorite novellas.
I probably would have been more disappointed if I wasn’t so familiar with King. It’s not like this is a concept unique to The Stand, as you said.
@ aechy
The whole journey, as I said, was terrific…and I don’t need redepmtion, or even necessarily resolution. I just wanted something that was maybe a bit more consistent with the themes and characters that had been building up for 700+ pages…
@ JZ
No, it wasn’t. By your argument, it’s as if any ending to a story is good, since it’s simply an ending. I agree that King told an excellent story, but see my comment above to aechy as to why it didn’t work.
The unabridged version has a Coda wherein Flagg apparently escaped “divine justice” and hit Africa…I imagine that King wanted Flagg to survive since he’s popped up in so many of King’s other books including the Dark Tower series and Eyes of the Dragon
@ Bill
It was my impression that Flagg is immortal, essentially evil personified. Hence his appearance in those other titles.
Its been a fair while since i read the book, so before i read your review i took a moment and tried to remember what it was that i really loved about that book.
I came up with some of the same things that you did:
-the characters were facinating in the way that they appeared more alive then usual fictional characters since they were flawed and i loved that part of his story.
-the chapter that he spends relating the various ways that those people who were “lucky” enough to survive the plague die due to various expected things was amazing. A lot of these apocolypse stories either don’t touch on that aspect, or they just state “you either died in the (enter horrible event here) or you lived”. I like that there is a reference in the Stand to those that survived and couldn’t make it.
-the story up to the end is stunning, you feel afraid for the characters, you feel sorrow and joy, he truely created some fascinating characters and left them in a dense and diverse story.
As for what i had issue with, i totally agree the ending has always felt like a “hmm so now i am here….where do i go from here….” A friend who is religious has his own idea that the “hand of god” isn’t comng from Flagg persay, instead he created the energy but that because there were people of faith in the face of flagg, god could manipulate it. I can’t really argue with the way he sees it, but it doesnt strike me in the same way.
One thing you might want to look at is there was a movie made of The Stand in….i think the 80’s? cant quite remember, but i do remember is was like 6 or 8 VHS cassettes long, and as far as i rememember i liked the ending there a bit better then the books… but i might be wrong its been bout 10 or 12 years since i saw it.
Good review btw=) You might also enjoy “Dies the Fire” by S. M. Stirling, its also a apocolypse esc book series but is also very interesting.
Rob
@ Rob
I don’t think your friend’s interpretation is “wrong” per se, but that’s not what I got out of it. King didn’t make that clear. From your response, I assume you agree with me. There was really nothing to indicate that that was what was going on.
I may actually pick up the Marvel comics series at some point; I’d rather read than put in all that investment to a movie. Although I imagine it’ll be remade at some point, right?
Thanks a lot for reading.
everything else is being remade these days, it’ll likely be on the list eventually. At which point given the trend of remades either:
the ending will be better, but the story will suffer.
or
the ending will be equally as vague, and the story “may” suffer
Rob
I loved the book but agree that the ending was weak.
You really need to read the Dark Tower series though, it is his best work.
Yeah, I agree, the ending was stupid. It felt like he just got exhausted and was like “fuck it, God kills everyone”. And then to add insult to injury we get to sit through 100 pages of Stu and Tom’s fuckin’ camping trip…fuck Stu. The only reason he survived was because he fell down a mountain like an idiot, and then was saved from death by another idiot.
@ thejackyl
Ha! Like your interpretation.
I agree, the novel itself was fantastic and the ending was a let down, I mean come on, what are the odds all of Flaggs plans folding at one time, but I think after seven hundred pages you have to either stop and add another book or say f**K it, I was more curious how the free zone would turn out. And why make Stu travel all that way just to break a leg, it was like he was writing like he meant for him to die with the others but had a change of heart about him and Franny and her baby, and also I think the baby was meant to die, i.e. Franny seeing an empty crib when visiting mother Abagails’ deathbed, I think he was going darker but changed his mind. King seems to do that starts leading you one way and then goes off into another, still my fav modern horror/suspense author.
@ Bigmike1982
I actually thought that maybe Flagg would come back as Fran’s baby. That would have been awesome.
I just finished it last night, and while I was initially a little disappointed with how abruptly the action ended, I don’t the think the climax could have been any different.
I agree with Rob’s friends about the “hand of god” literally being from God. It reminds me of one of those Old Testament stories where the prophets of the idol will do some sort small miracle/magic trick and then God goes “Oh yeah? Well, can you do this?” and one ups the false prophets with a bigger miracle. It is this combined with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the destruction of the Israelites worshiping the Golden Calf (which was referred to in the book). Since human civilization has returned to a more unorganized and chaotic time, God has started working in ways more akin to Old Testament stories.]
I also think it is effect BECAUSE it is so much different than what you expect. The four free zone characters set out for Las Vegas with no clue as to what will happen. The reader doesn’t know what will happen either, and just when the reader thinks he has it figured out (Oh hey, it looks like all of the people of Las Vegas are going to rise up and kill Flagg!), King completely subverts your expectation, showing that God (and authors) often work in mysterious and unexpected ways.
I also think it is a satisfying ending to the main characters. Larry shows that he is not just a “taker” by almost becoming a sacrifice that allows people to see Flagg at his most evil. Ralph, despite being a more minor character, gets to be glorified by his hero’s death. The purpose of all of the Free Zone members traveling to Las Vegas only to die was to show Randall and his followers that Randall only has power over people if they let him.
I feel like the uncut version of the book, which adds another 100 pages or so of ending, might be better because the relatively low key adventure of Stu and Tom traveling in the snow gives the reader time to reflect on the big confusing scene that just happened.
@ malaleb
I have to say, your point about Larry sacrificing was quite insightful. There’s a well-developed character arc right there.
Your point about God working in “Old Testament” ways is also insightful.
Thanks for the comment.
Actually, I thought the ending was perfect as a Christian allegory. King takes the remaining “bad people,” has them gather in one place, and the explosion leaves the rest of N. America “free” to rebuild. It is much like the Flood, with only a chosen few surviving. Flag as the Antichrist can only act according to God’s will, so God wanted Trash to return w/ a bomb, God wanted Whitney to speak out, God wanted Flagg to show off and fry him, and then directed the ball lightening (?) to the bomb to wipe the earth clean with fire. Larry, Ralph and Glen were martyrs sent to complete the plan, so that none of Flagg’s people would be away (Although I always assumed his colonies in Oregon, California, and Washington continued to function but without the “Let’s Destroy Boulder” vibe). I was unaware of the unabridged version, but I always hoped there would be some sort of sequel to see if Glenn was correct- did humanity re-colonize the world, where did they go and why, how they did it, etc. It was always doubtful the Flagg could “die,” but certainly his corporeal self could be destroyed. Just my 2 cents.
@ DpDawg
Not a bad theory, but maybe a bit too much determinism for my taste. It seems as though free will is almost completely out of the equation.
King isn’t really an above-average author. His hook is that he writes about interesting subjects and you can often tell that he doesn’t know how a book will end when he’s writing it.
Personally I found The Stand too long for such a poor book, and yes, the ending was disappointing.