Carrie

Stephen King The book uses fictional documents to frame the story of Carrie (Carrietta) White, a teenager from Chamberlain, Maine, who has been abused at home for years by her unstable Christian fundamentalist mother, Margaret. She does not fare much better at Ewen High School; at the beginning of the novel Carrie has her first period while showering after gym class. Carrie, who is terrified, has no concept of menstruation; her mother never spoke to her about it, and she has been a social outcast throughout high school. But the thought that this could be Carrie's first period never occurs to her classmates; instead of sympathizing with the frightened Carrie, they use it as an opportunity to make fun of her, bombarding her with tampons and sanitary napkins instead of helping. Gym teacher Miss Desjardin sees what is going on and immediately tries to help Carrie while girls sneak away in order not to get in trouble. At first Miss Desjardin is like the other classmates, getting mad at Carrie for freaking out. But soon she realizes Carrie has no idea what is happening to her and helps her. As a result something makes a light above them burn out all of a sudden. Carrie gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. She tries to keep these powers under control, even though she is continually pressed to the limit. Meanwhile, Sue Snell, one of the girls who had earlier teased Carrie, begins to feel horrible for her participation in the locker room antics, takes pity on her and offers to become her friend. With prom fast approaching, Sue sets Carrie up with her boyfriend, Tommy Ross a hunk and jock, but also an academic. However, Chris Hargensen, who helped instigate the earlier episode in the showers, is incensed that she is unable to attend prom. As revenge, she and her boyfriend, Billy Nolan, a hard core thug, hatch a plan to humiliate Carrie in front of the entire school. Chris makes Billy go and fill two buckets with pig blood and rigs them over the stage on a rafter hidden out of sight. On prom night Carrie is tormented by her mother begging for Carrie not to leave the house. Carrie leaves anyway and arrives with Tommy. Carrie is nervous at first, but soon she realizes that everyone is treating her well. Soon Carrie begins enjoying herself and Tommy begins to become attracted to her. Carrie and Tommy are voted for King and Queen and are rewarded. Once on stage Chris drenches Carrie and Tommy with the pig blood. Everyone begins pointing and laughing. A bucket knocks Tommy unconscious and Carrie runs out of the gym. She is tripped, gets back up, and rushes outside. Contemplating her life in solitary confinement she remembers her power and goes back inside to exact revenge on everyone who tormented her. She locks the doors and intends to drench everyone by the sprinkler system. But after viewing two kids die of electrocution she decides to set fire to the gym. She leaves the prom-goers and chaperones to die in the fire, including Tommy. Carrie leaves the school and begins to burn downtown Chamberlain. Sue rushes to school and watches it explode which destroys a portion of the town. Carrie makes her way home and kills her mother by stopping her heart, but not before she stabs Carrie in the shoulder. Carrie, mortally wounded then makes her way to the roadhouse (killing Billy and Chris on the way) where her father got drunk and raped her mother the night she was conceived. She makes it to the roadhouse the Cavalier and then decides that nothing matters anymore. Sue Snell watches Chamberlain burn and then tells her Carrie killed her mother which she realizes is strange. Sue goes to the Cavalier and finds Carrie on the parking lot, thinking she is dead. She talks telepathically and blames Sue for the prank, but after scanning Sue's brain, she finds out that Sue had no idea of the prank and that she had set her up with Tommy to apologize for the gym shower incident. Carrie doesn't forgive Sue, but believes her and then cries out for her mother before dying of a heart attack in Sue's arms.

Misery
Stephen King

Famed novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is the author of romance novels involving the character Misery Chastain. After finishing the manuscript of his latest novel, he departs from Silver Creek, Colorado to New York, but he is caught in a blizzard and his car goes off the road. He is rescued by nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) and brought to her remote home. Both of Paul's legs are broken, and he has a dislocated shoulder, leaving him bedridden and largely unable to move. Annie claims she is his number one fan, and goes on and on about how she cherishes Paul and his novels. To her delight, Paul lets her read his new novel but she later admits that she disagrees with its use of profanity. While she is feeding him, she loses her temper and spills soup onto him, but regains control and apologizes calmly. Annie then buys a copy of Paul's latest book, Misery's Child, which Paul intends to be the final Misery novel. After finishing Misery's Child and learning that he has "killed off" Misery in this story, Annie flies into a rage, almost smashing a small table on Paul's head. She reveals that she never contacted the hospital, or anyone Paul knows as she earlier claimed to have done. Annie leaves and Paul tries to escape his room, but she has locked the door. The next morning, Annie makes Paul burn his latest manuscript, insisting he write a new Misery novel instead entitled Misery's Return in which he brings the character back to life. During the process of writing the new novel, Paul attempts to escape the house whenever Annie travels to town after turning a hairpin into a makeshift key. After stockpiling his painkillers, Paul attempts to drug Annie during a candlelit dinner but his attempt is foiled when Annie accidentally spills her drugged wine glass. During another escape attempt, Paul finds a scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings about his disappearance and Annie's past, finding out that she was suspected in and tried for the deaths of several infants. Later, Annie drugs Paul and straps him to the bed. When he wakes, she tells him that she knows he's left his room in her absence and found out he planned to kill her. She then breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer in an act of "hobbling". Meanwhile, the local Sheriff (Richard Farnsworth) has taken an interest in the missing writer, and pays a visit to Annie prompted by the discovery of a quotation she used from a Misery book during her trial years earlier. While there, he discovers Paul has been drugged and hidden in the basement. However, Annie shoots and kills him. Annie tells Paul that the end has come and they must die together. Paul agrees, asking only that he can finish the novel so they can "give Misery back to the world". As Paul finishes the last chapter, he tells Annie to get a cigarette with a match and a glass of champagne. As he sends her to get a second glass, he drenches the book with lighter fluid he found while in the basement. When she returns, he sets the book on fire. As she tries to put out the fire, Paul bashes her in the head with the typewriter. The two struggle; Paul gains the upper hand and trips Annie, causing her to land head-first onto the typewriter. As Paul escapes his room, Annie lunges on top of him and he strikes her in the head with a small steel pig statue, killing her. Eighteen months later, Paul (now able to walk again with the help of a cane) meets with his publishing agent Marsha (Lauren Bacall) in a restaurant, discussing his first non-Misery novel, titled The Higher Education of J. Philip Stone, which has become a success. His agent asks if he wants to write a non-fiction book about his time with Annie, but Paul states it would not be good for him. He then sees a vision of Annie as a waitress but it turns out to be someone else. The waitress claims that she is his number one fan, to which Paul responds, "That's very sweet of you."

Christine
Stephen King

A prologue sequence shows a red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury in an auto plant assembly line. One worker is injured when the car's hood slams shut on his hand, and another is choked to death inside after dropping a cigar ash on the seat. Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) is a typical high school nerd with only one friend, a childhood companion and popular jock named Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell). Arnie's life begins to change when he buys a used car (Christine) in serious need of repair. Arnie begins to restore Christine to her original beauty, but as he spends more and more of his time repairing her, those in his life notice that he is changing as well. Formerly shy, Arnie develops a cocky arrogance. Dennis, as well as Arnie's new girlfriend, Leigh Cabot, (Alexandra Paul) discover that the car has a deadly past. The previous owner, Roland LeBay, became obsessed with Christine and he paid for it with his life. Leigh and Dennis try to save Arnie from a similar fate and they realize that the only way to save Arnie is by destroying Christine. Christine, however, isn't ready to give up Arnie without a fight. A group of bullies at school bear a grudge against Arnie after a shop class confrontation that results in the gang's leader, Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander), getting expelled for threatening Arnie with a switchblade. They severely vandalize the newly-restored Christine, leaving her totally ruined. Arnie sees the wreck of Christine the next day and is totally shocked that all the work he put into restoring the car has been destroyed. Arnie begins a slow descent into darkness, angrily blaming Leigh for the wreck, and displaying further problems with his temper, getting into arguments with his parents and having a scuffle with his father. He is determined to restore Christine again. The next day as he looks the wreck over, he turns his back and hears the creaking of metal behind him. Arnie looks at Christine again and sees that her engine is fully restored. Arnie simply smiles and says, "Okay... show me." Christine, flickering her headlights on, then comes to life and restores herself so she looks good as new. Subsequently, Christine seeks out and gruesomely kills the individual members of the gang who destroyed her, one by one. Eventually, Christine arrives at a gas station, spilling gasoline, burning the building down, catching herself on fire and running down Buddy as he flees the scene in terror. She also kills Will Darnell (Robert Prosky), the grouchy, foul-mouthed owner of the garage where she resides, crushing him in the front seat against the steering wheel. In each of these night-time attacks Christine is badly damaged, but somehow regenerates herself every time so she looks showroom new. On New Year's Eve, Dennis and Leigh reason that the only way to stop Christine and save Arnie is to destroy the car. Dennis then says that he is going to Arnie's, and Leigh urges him to be careful. After she leaves, Arnie pulls up to Dennis' house in Christine, picks him up and drives off. During the ride to Arnie's house, Arnie does a variety of things: drinks beer, takes his hands off the wheel, and tells Dennis about how strong the bond is between him and Christine. The next day, Dennis scratches the phrase "Darnell's Tonight" into Christine's hood, and drives off with Leigh. The two go to Darnell's and wait in a bulldozer. Dennis then tells Leigh to wait in the office so she can shut the door after Christine arrives. This way the car will be trapped. When Leigh exits the bulldozer and heads for the office, Christine's headlights shoot out of a pile of garbage, and the car charges at Leigh. As Christine crashes into Darnell's office in an attempt to kill Leigh, Arnie is thrown through Christine's windshield and is impaled on a shard of glass, surviving just long enough to admire Christine one last time. However, Christine continues to attack Dennis and Leigh, sustaining damage, and regenerating. Dennis pulls Leigh into the cabin, and finally crush Christine with the bulldozer, compacting her into a cube and tossing her into a junkyard, finally destroying her. Zooming in on the crushed cube that was formerly Christine, a piece of the grill slowly begins to bend.

The Shining
Stanley Kubrick Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) arrives at the Overlook Hotel to interview for the open position of winter caretaker, with the aim of using the hotel's solitude to work on his writing. The hotel itself is built on the site of an Indian burial ground and becomes completely snowbound during the long winters. Manager Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) warns him that a previous caretaker got cabin fever and killed his family and himself. Jacks son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), has ESP and has had a terrifying premonition about the hotel. Jack's wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), tells a visiting doctor that Danny has an imaginary friend called Tony and that Jack had given up drinking because he had physically abused Danny after a binge. The family arrives at the hotel on closing day and is given a tour. The elderly African-American chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) surprises Danny by speaking to him telepathically and offering him some ice cream. He explains to Danny that he and his grandmother shared the gift, which he calls "shining." Danny asks if there is anything to be afraid of in the hotel, particularly Room 237. Hallorann tells Danny that the hotel itself has a "shine" to it along with many memories, not all of which are good. He tells Danny to stay out of room 237. A month passes and Jack's writing project is going nowhere. Meanwhile, Danny and Wendy have fun and go in the hotel's hedge maze; Jack discovers a model of this maze, showing Wendy and Danny inside it, in one of the hotel lounges. Wendy is concerned about the phone lines being out due to the heavy snowfall and Danny has more frightening visions. As time passes, Jack becomes frustrated and slowly starts acting strangely, prone to violent outbursts. Dannys curiosity about Room 237 finally gets the better of him when he sees the room has been opened. Later, Danny shows up injured and visibly traumatized, causing Wendy to think that Jack has been abusing Danny. Jack wanders into the hotels Gold Room where he meets a ghostly bartender named Lloyd (Joe Turkel) who serves him bourbon on the rocks. Jack complains to the bartender about his relationship with Wendy. Afterward, Wendy shows up and informs him that Danny told her a "crazy woman in one of the rooms" was responsible for his injuries. Jack investigates Room 237 and has an encounter with the ghost of a dead woman there, but tells Wendy he saw nothing. Wendy and Jack argue about whether Danny should be removed from the hotel and Jack returns to the Gold Room, now filled with ghosts having a costume party. Here, he meets who he believes is the ghost of the previous caretaker, Grady (Philip Stone), who tells Jack that he must "correct" his wife and child. Later, Jack sabotages the hotel's two-way radio and the snowcat, cutting off both communications with, and access to, the outside world. Meanwhile, in Florida, Dick Hallorann gets a premonition that something is wrong at the hotel and takes a flight back to Colorado to investigate. Danny starts calling out "redrum" frantically and goes into a trance, now referring to himself as "Tony." Wendy discovers Jack's typewriter and that he has been typing endless pages of manuscript repeating "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" formatted in various styles. Horrified, she confronts Jack, but he threatens her before she knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat and locks him in a kitchen pantry. Jack converses through the door with Grady, who then unlocks the door, releasing him. Danny has written "REDRUM" in lipstick on the door of Wendys bedroom. When Wendy sees this in a mirror, she sees that the letters spell out "MURDER".Jack, armed with a fire axe, then begins to chop through the door leading to his family's living quarters. Wendy frantically sends Danny out through the bathroom window, but cannot fit through it herself. Jack then starts chopping down the bathroom door with the axe and leers through the hole he has made, shouting "Here's Johnny!", but backs off after Wendy slashes his hand with a butcher knife. Hearing the engine of a snowcat Hallorann has borrowed to get up the mountain, Jack leaves the room and begins to wander about the hotel, ambushing and killing Hallorann with the axe in the lobby. Wendy escapes the bathroom and flees through the hotel, but encounters several ghosts along the way. Meanwhile, Jack

pursues Danny into the hedge maze by following his footprints, but is misled when Danny manages to walk backwards in his own tracks and leaps behind a corner, covering his tracks with snow. Wendy and Danny escape in Hallorann's snowcat while Jack slowly freezes to death in the hedge maze. In the final scene, the camera slowly zooms in on an old photograph taken at the hotel on July 4, 1921 as Midnight, the Stars, and You is played through the hallways. A smiling Jack Torrance is at the front of the crowd of revelers. It then slowly moves down and shows the words: "Overlook Hotel July 4th Ball 1921". The screen then fades to black and the credits roll.

Ramayana:
The Ramayana is one of the two great Indian epics,the other being the Mahabharata. The Ramayana tells about life in India around 1000 BCE and offers models in dharma. The hero, Rama, lived his whole life by the rules of dharma; in fact, that was why Indian consider him heroic. When Rama was a young boy, he was the perfect son. Later he was an ideal husband to his faithful wife, Sita, and a responsible ruler of Aydohya. "Be as Rama," young Indians have been taught for 2,000 years; "Be as Sita." The original Ramayana was a 24,000 couplet-long epic poem attributed to the Sanskrit poet Valmiki. Oral versions of Rama's story circulated for centuries, and the epic was probably first written down sometime around the start of the Common Era. It has since been told, retold, translated and transcreated throughout South and Southeast Asia, and the Ramayana continues to be performed in dance, drama, puppet shows, songs and movies all across Asia. From childhood most Indians learn the characters and incidents of these epics and they furnish the ideals and wisdom of common life. The epics help to bind together the many peoples of India, transcending caste, distance and language. Two all-Indian holidays celebrate events in the Ramayana. Dussehra, a fourteen-day festival in October, commemorates the siege of Lanka and Rama's victory over Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. Divali, the October-November festival of Lights, celebrates Rama and Sita's return home to their kingdom of Ayodhya Prince Rama was the eldest of four sons and was to become king when his father retired from ruling. His stepmother, however, wanted to see her son Bharata, Rama's younger brother, become king. Remembering that the king had once promised to grant her any two wishes she desired, she demanded that Rama be banished and Bharata be crowned. The king had to keep his word to his wife and ordered Rama's banishment. Rama accepted the decree unquestioningly. "I gladly obey father's command," he said to his stepmother. "Why, I would go even if you ordered it." When Sita, Rama's wife, heard Rama was to be banished, she begged to accompany him to his forest retreat. "As shadow to substance, so wife to husband," she reminded Rama. "Is not the wife's dharma to be at her husband's side? Let me walk ahead of you so that I may smooth the path for your feet," she pleaded. Rama agreed, and Rama, Sita and his brother Lakshmana all went to the forest. When Bharata learned what his mother had done, he sought Rama in the forest. "The eldest must rule," he reminded Rama. "Please come back and claim your rightful place as king." Rama refused to go against his father's command, so Bharata took his brother's sandals and said, "I shall place these sandals on the throne as symbols of your authority. I shall rule only as regent in your place, and each day I shall put my offerings at the feet of my Lord. When the fourteen years of banishment are over, I shall joyously return the kingdom to you." Rama was very impressed with Bharata's selflessness. As Bharata left, Rama said to him, "I should have known that you would renounce gladly what most men work lifetimes to learn to give up." Later in the story, Ravana, the evil King of Lanka, (what is probably present-day Sri Lanka) abducted Sita. Rama mustered the aid of a money army, built a causeway across to Lanka, released Sita and brought her safely back to Aydohya. In order to set a good example, however, Rama demanded that Sita prove her purity before he could take her back as his wife. Rama, Sita and Bharata are all examples of persons following their dharma. This lesson focuses on how the Ramayana teaches Indians to perform their dharma. Encourage students to pick

out examples of characters in the epic who were faithful to their dharma and those who violated their dharma. Mahatma Gandhi dreamed that one day modern India would become a Ram-rajya.

Main Characters of the Ramayana

Dasaratha -- King of Ayodhya (capital of Kosala), whose eldest son was Rama. Dasaratha had three wives and four sons -- Rama, Bharata, and the twins Lakshmana and Satrughna. Rama -- Dasaratha's first-born son, and the upholder of Dharma (correct conduct and duty). Rama, along with his wife Sita, have served as role models for thousands of generations in India and elsewhere. Rama is regarded by many Hindus as an incarnation of the god Vishnu. Sita -- Rama's wife, the adopted daughter of King Janak. Sita was found in the furrows of a sacred field, and was regarded by the people of Janak's kingdom as a blessed child. Bharata -- Rama's brother by Queen Kaikeyi. When Bharata learned of his mother's scheme to banish Rama and place him on the throne, he put Rama's sandals on the throne and ruled Ayodhya in his name. Hanuman -- A leader of the monkey tribe allied with Rama against Ravana. Hanuman has many magical powers because his father was the god of the wind. Hanuman's devotion to Rama, and his supernatural feats in the battle to recapture Sita, has made him one of the most popular characters in the Ramayana. Ravana -- The 10-headed king of Lanka who abducted Sita. Kaushlaya -- Dasaratha's first wife, and the mother of Rama. Lakshmana -- Rama's younger brother by Dasaratha's third wife, Sumitra. When Rama and Sita were exiled to the forest, Lakshmana followed in order to serve.

Ramayana: A Summary
Dasharatha, King of Aydohya, has three wives and four sons. Rama is the eldest. His mother is Kaushalya. Bharata is the son of his second and favorite wife, Queen Kaikeyi. The other two are twins, Lakshman and Shatrughna. Rama and Bharata are blue, perhaps indicating they were dark skinned or originally south Indian deities. A sage takes the boys out to train them in archery. Rama has hit an apple hanging from a string. In a neighboring city the ruler's daughter is named Sita. When it was time for Sita to choose her bridegroom, at a ceremony called a swayamvara, the princes were asked to string a giant bow. No one else can even lift the bow, but as Rama bends it, he not only strings it but breaks it in two. Sita indicates she has chosen Rama as her husband by putting a garland around his neck. The disappointed suitors watch. King Dasharatha, Rama's father, decides it is time to give his throne to his eldest son Rama and retire to the forest to seek moksha. Everyone seems pleased. This plan fulfills the rules of dharma because an eldest son should rule and, if a son can take over one's responsibilities, one's last years may be spent in a search for moksha. In addition, everyone loves Rama. However Rama's step-mother, the king's second wife, is not pleased. She wants her son, Bharata, to rule. Because of an oath Dasharatha had made to her years before, she gets the king to agree to banish Rama for fourteen years and to crown Bharata, even though the king, on bended knee, begs her not to demand such things. Broken-hearted, the devastated king cannot face Rama with the news and Kaikeyi must tell him.

Rama, always obedient, is as content to go into banishment in the forest as to be crowned king. Sita convinces Rama that she belongs at his side and his brother Lakshman also begs to accompany them. Rama, Sita and Lakshman set out for the forest. Bharata, whose mother's evil plot has won him the throne, is very upset when he finds out what has happened. Not for a moment does he consider breaking the rules of dharma and becoming king in Rama's place. He goes to Rama's forest retreat and begs Rama to return and rule, but Rama refuses. "We must obey father," Rama says. Bharata then takes Rama's sandals saying, "I will put these on the throne, and every day I shall place the fruits of my work at the feet on my Lord." Embracing Rama, he takes the sandals and returns to Aydohya. Years pass and Rama, Sita and Lakshman are very happy in the forest. Rama and Lakshman destroy the rakshasas (evil creatures) who disturb the sages in their meditations. One day a rakshasa princess tries to seduce Rama, and Lakshmana wounds her and drives her away. She returns to her brother Ravana, the ten-headed ruler of Lanka (Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon), and tells her brother (who has a weakness for beautiful women) about lovely Sita. Ravana devises a plan to abduct Sita. He sends a magical golden deer which Sita desires. Rama and Lakshman go off to hunt the deer, first drawing a protective circle around Sita and warning her she will be safe as long as she does not step outside the circle. As they go off, Ravana (who can change his shape) appears as a holy man begging alms. The moment Sita steps outside the circle to give him food, Ravana grabs her and carries her off the his kingdom in Lanka. Rama is broken-hearted when he returns to the empty hut and cannot find Sita. A band of monkeys offer to help him find Sita. Ravana has carried Sita to his palace in Lanka, but he cannot force her to be his wife so he puts her in a grove and alternately sweet-talks her and threatens her in an attempt to get her to agree to marry him. Sita will not even look at him but thinks only of her beloved Rama. Hanuman, the general of the monkey band can fly since his father is the wind, and Hanuman flies to Lanka and, finding Sita in the grove, comforts her and tells her Rama will soon come and save her. Ravana's men capture Hanuman, and Ravana orders them to wrap Hanuman's tail in cloth and to set it on fire. With his tail burning, Hanuman hops from house-top to house-top, setting Lanka afire. He then flies back to Rama to tell him where Sita is. Rama, Lakshman and the monkey army build a causeway from the tip of India to Lanka and cross over to Lanka. A might battle ensues. Rama kills several of Ravana's brothers and then Rama confronts ten-headed Ravana. (Ravana is known for his wisdom as well as for his weakness for women which may explain why he is pictured as very brainy.) Rama finally kills Ravana. Rama frees Sita. After Sita proves here purity, they return to Ayodhya and Rama becomes king. His rule, Ramrajya, is an ideal time when everyone does his or her dharma and "fathers never have to light the funeral pyres for their sons."