Misery Essay, Research Paper
Misery
STORYMAP
1. Sidewinder Colorado- Paul Sheldon, a novelist that has been writing a series about a character named Misery Chastain. Got in a car wreck on the icy streets in sidewinder. He got in the accident from being drunk because of the celebration he had after completing the series. Paul shatters both of his legs, dislocates his pelvis and crushes one of his knees. There he rolls off the side of the road and is knocked un-conscious. This is very important to the character because this makes him very vulnerable to his “number one fan” Anne Wilkes who holds him in her house and won’t let him go. The event starts the conflict of the story.
2. Farmhouse- In the secluded, snowy forest Paul Sheldon wakes up in a house after receiving CPR. Anne Wilkes is an ex-nurse with all kinds of medicines and painkillers that she gives to Paul for his legs. She is crazy and gives him pills with soapy water out of a wash bucket. Anne is helping Paul so he can write her novels about the ended series of misery. She obviously didn’t want it to end. This is important because Anne Wilkes is saving Paul’s life but won’t let him
go. So this is a major problem he has to face in the story. He needs to escape and get to a real hospital or anywhere else but there.
3. Outside- This is outside the house where Anne goes everyday to do her daily chores which are to feed the animals and do lawn work. This is important for Paul because when she is gone he can think about how to get out and what he can do to save himself. It is also easier for him to rest or sleep without worrying about what she might do to him in his sleep.
4. Paul’s bed- Paul cannot move his legs or waist with ought feeling excruciating pain. So he has to lay in the bad for about three or four months before he can actually try to escape. This is a very important place because if he did not stay in bed so long to heal, then he couldn’t have time to think of his escape. Also Paul wouldn’t be able to leave the house with all of his injuries.
5. The attempt for an escape- this is one of the best parts of the story because this is where Paul tries to leave the house for the first time. When Anne leaves to go shopping in town about four miles away Paul tries to make a crawl for the exit. His legs aren’t healed yet but they are okay enough for him to drag them with ought feeling a lot of pain. First he slides out of the bed onto the floor. Next he slides himself to the edge of the stairs and crawls down to the first floor of this two-story house. Once he makes it to the kitchen door to escape, Anne is pulling up in the driveway. In panic he crawls back up stairs and into his bed. This is important because it brings us to the next painful event in Paul’s life.
6. Bone crunching- When Anne gets inside, she walks up to see how Paul is doing. But there is a penguin statue that he bumped into on his way upstairs and turned it so it faced south. Anne remembered that it faced north and she knew Paul had tried to leave. Once Anne got in the room she saw that Paul was panting and sweating .So she set his legs between two 2×4 pieces of wood and smashed his feet with a sledgehammer. This is important because it is major setback in Paul’s near escape. It also adds to the plot and suspense in the story.
7. The typewriter- Anne’s main idea for breaking Paul’s legs worse than they were was to make him type her knew stories of the previously ended Misery series. So Paul would sit in a wheelchair and type until his fingers and head ached as much as his smashed bones did. Once he had stopped typing and refused to keep going, so Anne chopped of his thumbs with an axe. This is important to Paul because it makes him start to go crazy from being held captive for so long.
8. Misery’s return- This is in the bedroom where Paul has been typing this story for months. Anne walks in with champagne to celebrate the finished book. But when she walks in she sees Paul with a match in one hand and the story in the other hand. Anne screams and drops the champagne, and then Paul drops the match. This starts a huge fire and he threw the book into it. Anne grabbed the burned story and runs to put out the fire. Then Paul throws the typewriter and hits Anne in the back. This is important to the resolution because it builds up to the climax and now Anne wants to kill Paul.
9. The fire- After the story gets set on fire, other piles of scrap paper set on fire and the desk catches fire also. A huge flame flies up Anne’s arm and the smell of burning flesh is in the air. There are huge shards of glass from the champagne bottle stuck in her knees, face and rest of her body. She tripped on the typewriter so Paul got on top of her and shoved handful after handful of burning paper into her mouth. Anne got up and tripped again. Then she lay motionless.
10. The climax/resolution- Anne got back to her feet and was covered in glass and blisters all over her body. Paul crawled out the door and locked Anne in. Then he went in the bathroom, closed the door and fell asleep. When he woke up he crawled onto the Parlor and threw the Penguin statue out the window and yelled for help. Two cops came in and went to the room where Anne was and inspected the room. Next the cops went down stairs and told Paul that there was burning ash and clothes, but no people.