Christine

Stephen King is a prolific and popular American writer, and Christine contains elements that define many of his texts, including an emphasis on supernatural horror, dreams, obsession, and characters who digress and philosophize on complex issues. One of King’s short stories, “Trucks,” from his first short story collection, Night Shift (1978), is set at a truck stop and features big rigs that, like Christine, assault humans. However, unlike Christine’s vengeful actions, the trucks’ fury is abstract: The narrator attributes it to the dominance of mass production and indiscriminate consumption. In contrast, Christine’s murders are personal: She works with LeBay’s malevolent spirit, possesses Arnie, and eliminates anyone who might lead him away from her. Ironically, Dennis uses a truck to crush Christine.

The Shining and Carrie are two of King’s most popular horror novels that relate to Christine in their preoccupation with obsession. In The Shining, Jack Torrance becomes obsessed with working on his play and then with the Overlook Hotel (the large property where he accepts a winter caretaker’s job) to the point that he becomes hostile to his wife and son, echoing Arnie’s infatuation with repairing Christine and consequent hostility toward his friends. When Arnie is in or around the car, he falls under its spell and becomes someone else. Leigh tells him, “[Y]ou seem to forget a lot of things in that car. Like how to be Arnie Cunningham” (604). Likewise, the longer Jack stays at the Overlook Hotel, the more its spirits possess him and the more alienated he becomes from his family, eventually descending into a mental illness similar to severe alcohol dependency. In Carrie, the titular Carrie White becomes obsessed with vengeance. Like Arnie, Carrie is a target of high school bullying. She uses her supernatural abilities to destroy her bullies and the town that cultivated them. Unlike Arnie, Carrie doesn’t need an external machine; instead, she becomes a killing machine.