The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and Christine by Stephen King - Essay Example

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and Christine by Stephen King Q Gender Roles Past and contemporary literary works both feature district gender roles based on diverse perspectives. Overtime, gender roles in literature change based on the development and inclinations of the society towards conventional or emerging beliefs. In essence, gender perceptions and inclinations are largely dependent on and influenced by socialization processes and how they are dependent on sex. The two novels, Blatty’s “The Exorcist” and King’s “Christine” are prime examples of literature that distinctly depict gender roles in the society. There are remarkable similarities and differences in gender roles as depicted by Blatty and King in the two masterpiece works of literature. Blatty depicts an all-female society that seemingly seeks help from an all-male society. King, on the contrary, depicts an all-male dominated society. In all the novels though, females are the core victims of dreadful experiences that occur in the society, a fact that renders the two novels as similar. The paper presents a succinct analysis of the two novels with an emphasis on gender roles, focusing on the similarities and differences. The analysis employs an extensive use of the literary works and explanations based on critical perspectives of the concept of gender in the society as outlined by Blatty and King. The dreadful encounters of Regan MacNeil in Blatty’s masterpiece novel reveal diverse perceptions about gender roles in the society. The family is all-women. Reagan stays with her mother, Chris, who is a single mother, in the neighborhood of Georgetown, Washington, D. C. The mother’s perception for first instance is that the house has rats but later realizes the situation is far worse. Chris notices the situation worse than she thought. In his novel, Blatty reveals a female-dominated society through the little girl, Reagan. Horrible occurrences start in the house that leaves the family frightened. There is noise from the room’s walls. Reagan’s conducts reveal possible instances of devilish influence. She pins her head round. She spits green lime. Blatty writes that there were “moans and screams of terror from Regans bedroom” (131). Blatty sets out the single mother-daughter relationship and family structure that contravenes the purview of conventional family structure in which the man exits, mostly as the head. In essence, it shows instances of instability in gender roles whenever the family faces stressful moments. Blatty reaffirms that when the only hope of reprieve from the stress that the family experiences is the masculine gender. For every occurrence that threatens the peaceful co-existence in the society, readers of the two novels hope that a man would be the savior, finally. Although, in some instances, the horrific instances threaten men in the society, their plight is not regarded as severe as that of women. The situation in Blatty’s novel differs from King’s because of the differences in gender. Reagan is a woman while Arnie is a man. The severity of their problems differs with Arnie’s situation expressed lightly than Reagan’s. In essence, readers perceive women as highly vulnerable to the effects of such horrific occurrences compared men even if they face potential suffering to a similar extent. The mother and daughter are beneficiaries of masculine roles of the male gender in the society. Blatty and King both emphasize faith in male authority in the society, a feature that promotes aspects of patriarchy in a male dominated society. The concept constructs males in the society as heroes and obliquely attempts to demean the capability of the female gender to solve pertinent concerns and issues, for instance. Furthermore, male characters are depicted as having the capability to restore order in the society, whenever a disaster strikes or in case females face a particular plight. The heroic status of men in the society is evident at the family levels. Male empowerment emanates from their heroic status in the society. Empowerment of the male gender is a central factor depicted by both Blatty and King. Similar to the Blatty, King reveals power in the male gender. For instance, Dennis and Arnie are empowered that they can easily acquire the car. At the start of the King’s work, Dennis and Arnie drive past Christine. Christine is an abandoned 1958 Plymouth fury, red and blue in color. Arnie proposes that Denis stops the car so that they can examine it. LeBay, the car owner, offers it to Arnie at a price of $250. Arnie promises to pay LeBay the remaining amount the next day after having settled a deposit of $25 with LeBay. The payment script read, “Received from Arnold Cunningham, $25.00 as a 24-hr deposit on 1958 Plymouth, Christine” (King 11). Similarly, that empowerment is bestowed on the male gender in Blatty’s work. Even after seeking assistance from specialists, the situation worsens for the MacNeils that is an all-female gender family. Regan starts to attack her family members, physically. Similarly, she begins to hurt herself and having injuries on most parts of her body. Kamien Karras turns out to be the individual who can save her from her plight. Karras seeks permission to execute exorcism on Regan that he receives. He sends her to Father Merrin, being the chosen exorcist but learns that the same devils have been in Regan for quite long. In fact, he had earlier dealt with the devil. After his realization that he cannot cast out the devil, Karras directs them to himself. He comments, “the demons target is not the possessed; it is us” (Blatty 382). Karras finally saves Regan by casting out the devil. Gender roles, as presented by Blatty, are fundamental in emphasizing other diverse concerns such as society decay and depreciation of family values. There are conditions of possible decay in family values in both novels that, possibly, are inherent to the failure of women characters. Remarkably, women are attributed to a decline in family spiritual values because of their inability to cast evil spirits out of haunted members of the society. There is a possible perception that readers acquire that independent woman in the society is regarded to be resistant to patriarchal authority. That, in their view, tends to promote the dreadful occurrences that the society members experience in the two novels. Furthermore, it causes a decline in familial structures in the society. Besides decay in family values, society decay is another concept articulated by Blatty and King in their works. Society decay is central in the two novels when considering the theme of gender. Blatty’s novel can be classified as feminist but King’s is masculine text. Both of them, however, show the extent to which society norms are mainly regarded as related to the decline in women’s roles. The broken family is structure, possibly, is responsible as a causation of society decay in the two novels. Monstrosity is defined in the novel as an element that thrives because of the lack of a patriarchal presence in the house. That, in effect, threatens the familial structure and it destabilizes traditional gender role coding. In Blatty’s novel, there are instances of horrific occurrences in Reagan’s bedroom. The bed starts to shake and eventual fly around. The young girl’s behaviors continue to horrify the family when she urinates on the floor when her mother has a dinner party. The occurrences may be ascribed as resulting from the threatened familial structure at the MacNeils because a male character eventually saves them. Gender, therefore, contributes a core role in addressing society decay in Blatty’s novel. Deceit and unethical business practices are key to the aspects of society decay that is evident in King’s novel. LeBay sells Christine to Arnie and Dennis without informing them of the previous instances of death that occurred. After their return the following day, LeBay invites Arnie and Dennis to his residential area from where they sign the details of the car’s sale. As he awaits Arnie to finish the sales details, Dennis decides to get inside Christine. Denis leaves while commenting that the car was not impressive after he was frightened. Arnie, however, buys the car and take it to Darnell’s from where it is prepared. He manages to restore the car but Dennis expressed that he was not contented with the repairs of the car. The repair, according to Dennis, is haphazard and does not satisfy the minimum required standards that he expected. Besides, his appearance transformed in tandem with the car’s outlook. The role of gender is key to revealing the truth about the car, Christine. That is, through Leigh’s involvement with Arnie. Leigh transfers to Arnie’s school, nearly when Arnie finished restoring the car. Leigh, being among the most beautiful ladies in the school, goes out with Arnie. Leigh nearly chocks to the point of death while eating hamburger when they are on a date with Arnie at sitting at the back of the car. A hitchhiker comes to Leigh’s rescue after pulling her from the car. Besides having an unworthy relationship with his parents, Dennis’ relationship with Leigh seemed to fail, as well. King refers to Arnie’s reaction and denial as “A wilful turning away from the truth” (206). Dennis gets information about the car after LeBay’s death as narrated to him by George. George, LeBay’s younger brother, informs Dennis of past regrettable experiences that occurred in the car. While sitting at the back of the car, Ronald’s daughter succumbed to death after having been choked by hamburger. After the incidence, Ronald’s wife died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the car because of the trauma she had after her husband’s death. After conducting investigations, Dennis affirmed that the apparent owner of the car would by similar to that of Ronald who had violent behaviors. The inclusion of female characters, Leigh, Ronald’s daughter and his wife, contributes significantly towards revealing information about Christine. Blatty and King’s masterpiece works address critical concerns about gender in the society. While Blatty presents an all-female society, King’s novel features a male-dominated society but one in which women contributes significantly. Reagan’s frightful experiences in a single mother-daughter relationship and family structure reveal much about gender roles in the society. Blatty and King both emphasize faith in male authority in the society. They also depict empowerment of the male gender in the society. Gender roles in the two novels are vital in emphasizing society decay and depreciation of family values. Works Cited Blatty, William P. The Exorcist. London: Corgi, 1971. Print. King, Stephen. Christine. New York: Penguin, 1983. Print. Read More