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Chapter 33
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Body, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Loss of Innocence
Fate, Luck, and Chance
Confronting Mortality
The Power and Limitation of Friendship
Making Meaning through Stories
Summary
Analysis
In the 1980s, when Gordie writes down his story, he’s a successful author, whose books are popular enough to be frequently turned into movies. He and his wife have three kids. Recently, he took them to Castle Rock to visit his Dad, and he caught a glimpse of an older and fatter Ace Merrill. Ace drove past Gordie on his way to one of Castle Rock’s dive bars, where Gordie imagines Ace has spent hours of his life every day since he turned 21. Turning to his left, Gordie can see the mill and the bridge crossing the river between Castle Rock and Harlow. The train trestle is gone, but the river is still there. And so is he.
Like “Stud City” and “The Revenge of Lard Ass Hogan,” The Body ends on an ambiguous note for Gordie. On the one hand, there’s a note of triumph in Gordie’s statement that he’s still there—still alive—and in his awareness that he escaped Castle Rock and became a success, unlike Ace Merrill. But his survival and Chris’s death suggest that this might be down to luck more than anything else. And his childhood continues to haunt him—remember how he still obsesses about finding Ray Brower’s berry pot even though it’s been decades since the boy died. He’s lost his innocence and learned to face life’s trials. But even this doesn’t mean that he—or anyone else—will ever have all the answers.
Themes
