66 pages • 2 hours read
Stephen KingBag of Bones
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Tensions Between Truth and Fiction
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.
Mike feels compelled to return to Sara Laughs for the sake of his writing, four years after Jo’s death. Having run out of backup material to share with his publishers, Mike wants to prove to himself that he can separate his relationship with Jo from his ability as a writer. The fact that he keeps having surreal dreams about Sara Laughs signals to him that he still has the imaginative capacity for writing. Once he arrives, however, the lines between what is true and false become blurred, leading to the novel’s exploration of the tensions between truth and fiction.
Shortly after he arrives at Dark Score Lake, Mike is thrust into several events that feel straight out of his commercial novels. He becomes involved in a legal battle between an underdog single mother and a ruthless tycoon. He experiences a macabre haunting tied to the history of the nearby lake. He also learns about a secret life his late wife led, forcing him to wonder how much he really knew about her. Mike’s return to Sara Laughs forces him to reassess his interest in fiction and what is or isn’t merely his imagination at work. Furthermore, Mike realizes how much he had missed about Jo because he was too preoccupied with writing. He recognizes how much he has used writing as a way to escape from the real world.
Although Mike is struck by a sudden burst of inspiration to write a new manuscript, he finds himself repeatedly drawn back to the events of the real world. Once he reaches another block in his writing, he devotes his energy toward resolving the mysteries that the real world has set before him. The redirection of his writing focus grants him access to psychic abilities that connect him to other people around the town. Once Mike ends the haunting of Sara Laughs, he resolves to give up his writing career—not because of writer’s block, but because he feels that the sensationalistic deaths in his novels are in bad taste after Mattie’s murder. He also realizes that his new manuscript was a tool Jo used to communicate with him, and accepts that his writing will never have the same importance for him now that she has died.
Rather than condemning the endeavor of literature altogether, Stephen King uses this theme to suggest that fiction should resonate and amplify human experience, rather than serve as mere escapism. Mike reinforces his new commitment to dealing more directly with his reality in the novel’s final lines, alluding to Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, a reminder of his relationship with Mattie.
The Cyclical Nature of Trauma and Violence
During his time at Dark Score Lake, Mike gradually uncovers the mystery behind the haunting of his summer house, Sara Laughs. Mike learns that Sara and Kito Tidwell were the victims of a racist attack in TR-90, and that Sara’s vengeful spirit has cursed the town ever since. In Mike’s uncovering of the town’s dark legacy, the novel explores the cyclical nature of trauma and violence.
Mike initially regards TR-90 as a quaint small town that offers a peaceful refuge and a chance to restart his writing career. When he becomes aware of Max Devore’s machinations against Mattie, his opinion of the town begins to turn. Most of the townspeople bow to Max’s pressure and openly shun or antagonize Mike and Mattie, such as George Footman and Royce Merrill. By following Jo’s clues and his vivid fever dreams, Mike learns that hostility to outsiders runs deep among the families at TR-90. Mike is especially torn by the discovery that Bill, his old friend, is racist, with Bill’s hostile attitude toward the memory of Sara Tidwell foreshadowing the revelations of Sara’s violent end and the intergenerational violence that plagues the town.
The town’s cycle of trauma and violence began with Sara’s murder, with Sara’s spirit seeking revenge against the families that killed her and her son. Her rage over her unjust death leads her to manipulate the descendants of her murderers into naming their children names that begin with “C” or “K” in an echo of “Kito,” and to murder at least one of their children in every generation. This violent curse has already claimed several victims, such as Bill’s twin sister Carla, and Mike eventually discovers that Kyra is Sara’s next target. Through Sara’s curse, the novel suggests that cycles of unresolved trauma and violence can continue to impact lives in destructive ways, so long as people continue to hide the truth instead of honestly confronting it.
Although Mike can sympathize with Sara’s anger, he also sees that it is needless for violence to beget more violence, especially when it comes at the cost of children’s lives. Mike resolves the horrors of the curse by putting Sara’s spirit to rest in spite of her protestations. He also tries to honor the past by challenging the discriminatory attitudes of TR-90, such as by standing by Mattie no matter what the town thinks of it and attempting to adopt Kyra. Mike’s success in ending the curse at Sara Laughs implies that it is only by accepting the past and seeking to rectify it that intergenerational cycles of violence and trauma can finally end.
Overcoming a Fear of the Future
Mike and Mattie’s character arcs are marked by similar anxieties over the directions that their lives are taking. Neither of them can move toward the resolution of their respective conflicts without first resolving these anxieties, with both Mike and Mattie gradually learning how to overcome a fear of the future.
Following Jo’s death, Mike struggles to write. His writer’s block is a manifestation of his grief. Since he depended on Jo so much while writing, he cannot envision moving forward in his career without her. Moreover, Mike describes himself as a “bag of bones” to stress the futility of writing new fiction. He cannot see the point of writing something new because it does not have any impact on the world he lives in, apart from increasing his wealth. Mike therefore wrestles with a sense of futility and cannot reconcile his need to go on living and working with the intense grief he feels over Jo’s loss.
Mattie has also suffered a bereavement: Her life has been upended by Lance’s sudden death. Mattie describes her relationship with Lance as idyllic, associating her love for him with her youth and the optimism she once felt about their shared future. Now that he is gone, she cannot go back to the way things were: Her social circle now ostracizes her, thanks to Max’s influence, and she is fighting to retain custody of her daughter. Even if Mattie wins her custody case, she can already foresee the tremendous challenges of being a working-class single mother that await her. There is thus no sense that life will ever again be as promising or exciting as it was when she met Lance, which leaves her feeling fearful of what the future holds.
Mike and Mattie gradually begin to resolve their fears through their deepening connection with each other. Mike uses his wealth to give Mattie a fighting chance in her custody battle, which gives Mattie a renewed sense of hope and agency in her life. Helping Mattie in turn causes Mike to feel alive again, as he now has a new sense of purpose and no longer feels consumed by his grief or fear. While both Mattie and Mike maintain a deep love for their deceased spouses, they also tentatively begin to express romantic feelings for one another, suggesting that both of them have begun to believe in a future that can be shared with someone else.
The abrupt ending of their blossoming connection through Mattie’s murder ends Mike’s desire to write, but he does not relapse into fearing the future. Instead, Mike symbolically burns the manuscript of his new novel to acknowledge that writing was part of his relationship with Jo, which is now in the past. Mike knows that he must now devote himself to something new that he finds really meaningful and impactful, which is why the novel ends with his decision to adopt Kyra.
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