A successful movie called “Secret Window” released in 2004 made people look at a Stephen King novel again: “Four Past Midnight”. The film is a revision of the second part of it: “Secret Window, Secret Garden”. This story tells us something about a writer who has a double personality. But from the beginning, the readers may not be aware of it. Following in the footsteps of the hero Mort, readers are eager to discover the mysterious John Shooter.
Although Mort himself tries to find the truth he believes, he is unable to find any evidence. Whether or not John Shooter really exists will occupy readers’ minds. And finally according to some clues, the readers know the reason. I mean, Mort himself has something wrong with his mind: personality dissociation. It is one of the psychological diseases. Here by using it as the background of the novel he gets closer to people’s emotions. It is horrible to notice that a man you know well becomes another man, a complete stranger. This point is enough to give readers a head start. And every suspect can be explained by the reasonable answer.
Readers will think that there is no need to worry or fear something that happened in the novel, it will not happen in the real world. But the fact is that sometimes things can happen in the real world. Our world has this type of people who have a psychological disease: personality dissociation. Readers are easy to get a real sense of fear, when the plot fits the logic of life.
A good description of the setting can draw readers into the world the writer creates as if they too were members of it. Stephen King doses it, but he doesn’t try very hard to imagine concretely, he does it to build the atmosphere. King’s readers are not frightened by King’s words; they are frightened by his own vivid imagination. His descriptions of the conditions are full of images.
