Life Lessons In Stephen King's The Body

In Stephen King’s, The Body, the inclusion of life lessons is the most evident component in the book. In The Body, four boys, Gordie, Vern, Teddy, and Chris set out on a two-day journey to find a kids dead body. During their journey, the boys’ face many obstacles from avoiding getting hit by a train to fending off a gang of delinquents. This coming of age story has many life lessons that the boys learned, including how not all friendships last, parents are not always reliable, and how various adults can be untrustworthy. The biggest life lesson that Gordie learns is that people come in and out of peoples lives for a reason, ultimately teaching them something in the end. The realization that Gordie has about his friends was brought on by Chris, telling him that “[Gordie’s] friends drag [him] down.” (384). Due to the fact that Vern and Teddy are …show more content…
What is going on in Gordie’s home life was noticeable to Chris when he mentions to Gordie that “[He] knows about [Gordie] and [his] folks. They don’t give a shit about [Gordie]. [Gordie’s] brother was the one they cared about.” (381). This passage emphasizes the point that a lot of parents do not treat their children equally or with a fair amount of respect. Chris also mentions that if he were Gordie’s father, that he would push him to do better things unlike Gordie’s actual parents, who never carted much about him in the first place. In addition, Gordie reveals the abusive nature of Chris’s father saying that, “Chris was marked up every two weeks or so, bruises on his cheeks and neck or one eye swelled up and as colorful as a sunset.” (306.) As a result of his alcoholism, Chris’s dad was extremely unreliable. He never taught his kids what was right or wrong, as one of Chris’s brothers was in jail for sexually abusing someone. Meanwhile their parents were not dependable, they became mature more quickly, and in away were their own