What Has Stephen King Been Trying to Tell Us?

Stephen King has thought a lot about death. Regardless of whether the 78-year-old author dwells much on his eventual date with oblivion, he’s returned again and again to the larger matter of mortality. The Shining? Ghosts galore. The Stand? A postapocalyptic epic. Pet Sematary? Name a more bleakly morbid bestseller. Even when King strays from horror, his mind doesn’t stray far from the grave. “Get busy living or get busy dying,” goes a line from one of his warmest, fuzziest tales—a beloved jailhouse yarn later adapted into the ultimate TNT staple, The Shawshank Redemption.