Abstract
This master's paper examines gender roles, sexuality, domestic abuse, and unresolved trauma in Stephen King’s Carrie and The Shining, since they are King’s early novels and came out during the 1970s feminist movement. Though scholars have used various psychoanalytical theories on King’s work, few utilize contemporary psychological research. By using feminist film and literature theory, Adverse Childhood Experiences research, and intergenerational transmission of trauma research, pathways of harm can be traced from one character to the next in the texts. In Carrie, a single mother represses her trauma through religion, leading her to abuse Carrie, leading Carrie to be bullied, and eventually leading Carrie to massacre a town. In The Shining, a father’s personal traumas lead him to become a domestic abuser before spiraling into a family annihilator; in turn, his wife must occupy more masculine spaces to protect herself and her son. In both texts, traumas that happened prior to the plot result in the harm seen in the narratives. Additionally, characters are seen fitting stereotypical gender roles in both texts. By reading these texts together, the family structures become clearer in the novels and that the monsters are constructed through their gender.