Firestarter Essay, Research Paper
Fire-Starter
By Stephen King
Character Review:
Protagonist- Charlie McGee is a girl with pyrokinesis (a power in which someone can light fires with a glance). She is 8 years old. She is short, has blond hair, and brown eyes. She doesn’t like her power very much because she can’t control it. When she was about 5 years old, she was in the kitchen with her parents when they were trying to help her control her power. They gave her a test on a piece of toast, she burnt it to a crisp, and then she accidentally burnt her mother’s hands. The next day, when her dad came home from work, Charlie and her mother were nowhere to be found. Her father, Andy McGee, found his wife, dead in a closet. Charlie was still missing; “the shop” had killed her mother and kidnapped her. Both Andy and Charlie’s mother had telekinesis, (a power in which, someone can make a person think that something is what its not, or make them think what that person is thinking). Andy drove to a neighbor’s house, and used his power on the two agents that had kidnapped Charlie. He and Charlie drove of and were in search of for a few years. Charlie can’t stand people that are after her, or mean, or especially lie to her.
Charlie’s whole life is included in this book. The book revolves around Charlie’s power. It’s so powerful, that her parents can’t even try to control it.
Charlie’s main weakness is trusting too many people. She trusts to many strangers, which could lead to danger.
Her basic problem is trying not to get caught by “the shop” (a secret government agency that wants to investigate her power). They have been after her since she was born. Since both of her parents had telekinesis, she was born with a different set of DNA, which gave her the power of pyrokinesis.
I really like Charlie. I like the way she wants to control her power, and I like how she has a lot of confidence, its like she knows what’s going to happen, and that everything is going to be fine.
The thing that I specifically admire is the way she copes with the way she was brought up. She was brought up, to learn to use her power when she could to get money or food, or whatever she needed, but she knows that it isn’t right to steal, and it isn’t right to use a power that nobody else has to get something that you actually don’t deserve. I think it’s wonderful that she isn’t selfish.
The thing that I find the most unbelievable is how strong her power actually is. She can light a bathtub full of water on fire, and she can burn through a wall made of cement bricks.
Antagonist: “The Shop” is the antagonist in this story. “The Shop” is a government agency that is trying to get their hands on Charlie and her father because they feel that Charlie can be a major use in warfare and other important things for our country. They want Andy because of his telekinesis, and they feel that, that could be a useful thing also.
“The Shop” has a secret agent, who plays a character named John, to get Charlie’s trust. John wants Charlie all to himself though. So he decides to persuade Charlie into his trust. Charlie unfortunately falls for the act, which cause much trouble. The government agency had planned for Charlie and her father to go away to Hawaii, after some tests were done, to relieve some stress. “The Shop” tricks Charlie, which leads to her father’s death.
At the end, Charlie decides she needs to use her power to kill those who killed her father. She burns the whole entire “Shop” down. The agency was about 10 acres of land, she burned everything in sight.
Synopsis of Content:
Major Characters- Charlie McGee, Andy McGee, and John.
Minor Characters- the rest of the government agents, Charlie’s mother, and the neighbor.
Major Plot- the major plot in this story is that “The Shop”, is trying to get a hold of Charlie, because of her power of pyrokinesis. They want her father also, since he has telekinesis. Charlie and her father, Andy, keep running from the government agency. They think that they have no right at all to try to take Charlie from her father. They want to use Charlie’s power as a weapon in warfare, if there was to be another war. Andy doesn’t want his daughter to have any part in that at all. Eventually, they do get caught. They are separated, and are not allowed to see each other at all. John, a secret government agent, gains Charlie’s trust, and then backstabs her. But as he should have known, nobody backstabs Charlie McGee. He is the one who thought her power wasn’t very strong and that some how it could be cured but nope, not a chance. He learns that as he gets killed with the untrusting look in Charlie’s eyes. Unfortunately, before Charlie could get to John, John got to Andy, and Andy was killed. Charlie was dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe that her father was dead. Out of all of those years that she and he had gone out and ran from the government, it was over; she no longer had a dad.
The minor plot in this story is one time, when Charlie and Andy were running away, an old man stopped for them to give them a ride. He was a nice old man, who invited them to stay for lunch. He and his wife did not know that, that would be danger for them too. The government agents find Charlie and Andy, but Charlie warns them that if they don’t go away, then she will use her powerful pyrokinesis on them. The don’t believe her so they start to shoot at her, but instead of her getting shot, the poor old man gets shot in the arm. Luckily he is okay. Charlie uses her power to destroy the agents. This fits into the end of the book, because when Charlie’s father died. The old couple took care of her, and officially adopted her.
Bibliography
novel by stephen king