Christine

Though Dennis Guilder isn’t the central character, he and Leigh function as the story’s protagonists. Dennis experiences significant internal conflict, wanting to help Arnie but realizing that Arnie won’t recognize his efforts as helpful. Dennis and Leigh want to eradicate Christine and LeBay’s spirit without destroying Arnie. Dennis devises the ostensible solution: to rent a huge vehicle to trap and crush Christine. As Dennis takes the lead in Christine’s alleged demise, he becomes the story’s hero. Dennis’s injuries bring him further glory, and when he battles Christine, he hasn’t yet regained his physical strength after his hospitalization for a football injury. The scene emphasizes Dennis’s courage and resilience: To destroy Christine and the evil she represents, he endures pain and risks losing the capacity to walk.

Before Christine and Arnie’s downfall, Dennis is a mostly decent character. He depicts himself as popular, though he’s neither mean nor conceited, so he isn’t an archetypal popular person at his high school: “I was a big guy there—yeah, I know that doesn’t mean donkeyshit” (12-13). This self-presentation reveals Dennis’s modesty and frankness and highlights his sense of humor. Alluding to World War II, Dennis describes Christine: “Looks like the Russian army marched over it on their way to Berlin” (24). Whether funny or serious, Dennis’s blunt diction makes him politically incorrect. When he compares Christine to types of women, like “a real slut, one more than happy to stoop for the troops” (246), he becomes sexist. These mean-spirited comparisons reveal one of Dennis’s few flaws.

Rollie LeBay is the novel’s primary antagonist unless one considers Christine a character. Of course, LeBay’s character is inseparable from Christine since the car carries and fosters his malevolence. LeBay is extraordinarily misanthropic. McCandless contemptuously calls him “the most contentious bastard that ever lived” (859). LeBay is racist, sexist, and generally hateful. Anyone who crosses him becomes a “shitter,” and he compares the smell of a new car to “pussy.” The novel introduces LeBay’s crude diction when he sells Arnie his car, and the reappearance of that diction in Arnie after LeBay’s death is evidence that he’s possessing Arnie.

LeBay fought in World War II and the Korean War, so he initially appears as a stereotypically bitter war veteran. However, King later juxtaposes LeBay with McCandless and other members of the American Legion, showing that fighting in a war isn’t an excuse for heinous behavior in civilian life. LeBay’s toxicity doesn’t stem from his war experiences or Christine. As his backstory reveals, LeBay was always inimical. He put his nefarious spirit in Christine, and it infected Arnie.

When Leigh’s family moves to town, she becomes Arnie’s romantic interest and later Dennis’s romantic interest. She’s also Dennis’s sidekick in the final showdown against Christine. With Christine and Arnie, she creates a “lover’s triangle,” advancing Arnie’s dual transformation. Without Christine, Leigh wouldn’t have become Arnie’s girlfriend. The car gives him the confidence to call her and becomes a conspicuous part of their first date. However, Leigh notes how Christine changes Arnie for the worse. The possessed car becomes increasingly jealous of Leigh and even tries to kill her the way it supposedly killed LeBay’s daughter. Leigh notes the surreal situation when she quips, “I thought girls were supposed to be jealous of other girls. Not cars” (424).

The story pairs women with objects but also objectifies Leigh outside the context of Christine. Dennis presents Leigh as a flawless beauty. Even after the violent final scene in the garage, she retains her perfection. Mercer tells Dennis, “No marks on her face” (1071). Thus, the male characters contribute to Leigh’s objectification. However, King uses the third-person narrator to highlight her humanity and subvert troublesome stereotypes about women and sex. Leigh wants to have a fulfilling sex life but doesn’t want to risk her life or be second to a car, so she chooses to break up with Arnie and become romantically involved with Dennis. In doing so, however, she asserts independence, proving that she has agency and doesn’t belong to anyone.

As the owner of the garage where Arnie keeps Christine, Will Darnell provides the car with a home. Even before Arnie brings Christine to the garage, Darnell gave the car a home, since LeBay worked on it in Darnell’s garage too. Darnell’s connection to Christine, LeBay, and assorted crimes make him an antagonist. Expanding his inimical influence, Darnell gets Arnie to transport illicit products for him.

In the context of Christine’s supernatural evil, Darnell’s toxicity becomes banal. He isn’t simply a “bad character.” His emphysema makes him vulnerable, and his high-school acting career gives him artistic sensibilities. In addition, Darnell is perceptive and understands that something suspicious is happening with Christine after LeBay’s death. Christine easily kills the isolated Darnell at his home before breezily returning to the garage as if it were her home.

Arnie and Dennis are from upper-middle-class families whose socioeconomic status creates security and gives Christine multiple stable lives to threaten. Initially, Dennis and Arnie have amicable relationships with their parents. Once Christine enters Arnie’s life, however, his parents become antagonists from the car’s perspective, and in this respect, Arnie’s mother, Regina, takes the lead over Arnie’s mild-mannered father, Michael.

Once Arnie’s family dynamics become contentious, they juxtapose those of Dennis’s family. Throughout the story, Dennis remains on good terms with his parents and sister. He regularly confides in his father, Kenny, and has a lovingly teasing connection with his younger sister, Elaine, whose pride in having her “period” makes her an empowered female character.

Buddy and his friends represent antagonists. The name Buddy is ironic because Buddy isn’t a “buddy” but a bully. His pals include Dan Vandenberg, Sandy Galton, Peter “Moochie” Welch,” Bobby Stanton, and Richie Trelawney. Buddy is the ringleader, and he takes Don, Moochie, and Richie with him to vandalize Arnie’s car. Sandy plays an instrumental role in the vandalism because he works at the airport parking lot and alerts Buddy that Arnie’s car is there. However, Sandy isn’t hateful. He has “no feelings about Cunningham one way or another,” and the vandalism makes him feel “a little sick” (453), revealing that he’s conscientious.

The novel likewise gives depth to Dan and Buddy’s characters. At the gas station, Dan feels lonely and calls his cantankerous father. Buddy isn’t purely toxic either. After Bobby tells a racist joke, Buddy calls him on it, revealing that he’s anti-racist. King even creates sympathy for Bobby when the omniscient narrator labels him a helpless “little shit-for-brains freshman” (627). Moochie, too, elicits sympathy as his socioeconomic circumstances compel him to ask people for change. Thus, neither Moochie, Buddy, nor the other antagonists in Buddy’s group are flat characters.

LeBay’s younger brother George reinforces that LeBay’s character is toxic. He doesn’t want anything to do with LeBay’s house, has nothing positive to say about him, and advises Arnie to immediately sell Christine. George wants to avoid LeBay’s evil spirit and thinks Arnie should do the same.

Through George, the characters learn that LeBay’s lethal hatred predates Christine: When he was a teen, LeBay killed multiple people, indicating that Christine didn’t corrupt LeBay; his insidious spirit infects Christine.