Brian Mann posted a a short article on Under The Dome titled, "Under the Dome: Life in our small towns." Mann notes that King plays around with "the very real Babbitry and small-mindedness that can derail or dead-end small towns."
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But in the midst of his post, he throws a rather startling punch King's way: "Sometimes this stuff goes to far even for trash summer reading. There is a minstrel-show, Barney Fife quality to some of his rural caricatures: the evil small-towns sheriffs, the wicked used car dealers, and the homicidal high school jocks."
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I didn't really find UTD to be trash summer reading. But then, I also wasn't looking to dig in to James Joyce. But, that can slide...
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It's the comment on King's characters being type-cast. Does King stereotype? Well, sure! That's how you create characters the reader can identify with. In fact, it's when a character acts quite different from the way we know they should that a story loses believability.
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I think the characters in UTD were one of its strengths. King had the difficult task to building an entire town. he gave us: Police (and no, they were not Barney Fife!), short order cooks, used car salesmen, pastors of more than on denomination, teens, old people, doctors and more. Gosh, he even gave us a dog with personality! Of course characters on the edges of a story are gong to be a little bit stereotyped! But the more centeral players were well developed -- in my opinion.
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To me, a good character is not exactly good or bad. We struggle through life! Some people lean toward doing what is right, while others indulge heavily in all out sin. But even the sinful will at times choose to do good, if for no other reason than to atone for their own bad behavior and prove to themselves that they ain't so bad after all. King has the ability to give us surprising glimpses into all of his characters. For instance, in UTD, King gave us a pastor who wasn't sure of God. He gave us police, who might have sold out, but still struggled with that decision.
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So, all this simply to say: to typecast the characters too early in UTD will be to miss the true beauty of the novel.
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More impotantly, we might ask: Does King get small towns right? I think he does. In fact, I'm afraid he does!
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