The Stand -- THE KID!

The Stand Journal Complete and Uncut, #9

I've been slowly moving through the Stand as I drive.  It's a slow  read for me,  since I live in a  small town, only 1 mile from work. The best places in California are small towns.  I think I've been reading slowly also  because I'm not expecting much.  So I don't hurry out to make extra drives and listen to my book, since I think deep down The Stand cannot possibly surprise me.

I was wrong.  The Stand has once again surprised me! I know I read this version in high school, but once again either my memory has failed me -- probably not! -- or I just skimmed through spots I thought were  probably going to be dry -- THAT'S IT!  

The first time I read The Stand, I found the character of the Trashcan Man to be a huge distraction. Of course, I didn't know as I read the book just how important he is to the books grand finale.

Trashie is a nut.   I mean a big time, crazy loon nut.  Is he mean?  Well, not exactly.  He serves the dark man, but he's childish.  Of course, if trashie were a child, he'd be the one in the corner quite a bit for doing stuff  that would shock the good mothers in town.

By the way, Trashcan Man's trip into the Eisenhower Tunnel is almost as scary as Larry Underwood's.  It just comes later in the novel, so I think it's less talked about.

Now some of my memories for Trashcan Man are skewed because the most recent version I read was the original abridged version.  Though King cut down on Trashcan Man's journey, the entire episode is more boring because the character of the kid is almost completely stripped away.  If there is something that makes this portion of the book breath, it's The Kid.

I know he's not --  but I picture him as a kind of loony Elvis.

Who is The Kid? The Kid is a southern boy who catches up with Trashy as they head toward Cibola -- Vegas.  He is over the top domineering, demanding the introverted and often timid Trashy drink chug beer and not throw up.  At night, his abuse of Trash becomes even worse.  Frankly, he treats the Trashcan Man like trash.  He rapes him with a gun -- at it goes on from there.  The kid dies one of the most wonderful deaths ever in the Stephen King universe!  (Read on at your own risk)

After an argument, wolves come out to defend the Trashcan Man.  Apparently the wolves are servants of the Dark Man.  King writes:

The wolves came on, no faster and no slower, at a fast walk. Their eyes ... Trashcan Man found himself unable to look away from their eyes. They were not the eyes of ordinary wolves; of that he was quite convinced. They were the eyes of their Master, he thought. Their Master and his Master.

Trashcan Man, on the other hand, holds out a burned hand to the wolves, and a wolf licks it. They (the wolves) escort Trashy away from the crazy Kid, while trapping the kid in a car (an Austin).  This remind you of Cujo?  It should!  "The wolves seemed to grin up at The Kid, their tongues lolling out of their mouths. They seemed to be asking him just how long it would be before he kicked the dark man out of ole Lost Wages on his ass. Just how long?"

Exactly what happens to The Kid isn't revealed until quite a bit later in the book.  Stu, Larry, Ralph and Glenn come upon The Kid's corpse.  They call him the wolf man.  Though they will be unable to put together the mystery of exactly what happened, King fills the reader in -- for which he deserves a big THANK YOU!  It is so tempting for writers to leave bits of the story in a haze -- sometimes it's nice to have some answers!

(I'm not telling you anything here that's not already all over the web!)

King writes, "Finally driven by hunger and thirst, he had opened the passenger door. One of the wolves had jumped him and torn his throat out. But the Wolfman had throttled it to death even as he himself died."

Though no longer escorting him, the wolves give the easily spooked Trashy a huge dose of confidence.  If the Darkman can protect him with wolves, then he can protect him i the darkness of  the Eisenhower tunnel as he navigates through the darkness.

The tale of The Kid is a story of sweet revenge.  Even with the first conclusion to the story, that he is simply left to die in the car -- the reader has a sense of "OH YEAH" justice.  Then when  The Kid is found dead, and King reveals the wolves ate him alive -- and the reader remembers the evils The Kid brought on Trashcan Man in that hotel room, the reader is shouting all the more, "YES!"

It's the same sensation as reading Dolores Claiborne.  You know, that moment when she gets her  man running at full speed and then down the well the abuser goes!  In a Stephen King story, it's really not good to be a sexual abuser.  You might go down a well, or get eaten up by wolves.

Kevin Quigley writes at his website charnelhouse.com,

"It is here that the expansion of The Stand is most important. The Trashcan Man, little more than a puzzling cipher in the earlier edition of the novel, gets some much-needed character work. During his trip through the desert to find Randall Flagg, Trash meets a dangerous psychopath named The Kid, who emotionally and sexually abuses him during their strange time together. The Kid is a representation/culmination of the never-ending cycle of abuse and torture at the hands of others; Flagg represents inclusion, camaraderie. Trash's terror of and subsequent escape from The Kid works well to flesh out this relatively weak character, and to strengthen the resolve of his mantra, My life for you."