36 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KingChildren of the Corn
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1977A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Burt Robeson
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to graphic violence, death, horror themes, religious fanaticism, and domestic violence.
Burt is a dynamic protagonist whose character development and internal conflict drive the story forward. From the story’s opening lines, Burt’s perspective—alternately sarcastic, determined, and darkly comic—defines the tone of the story. Although initially desperate to preserve his marriage to Vicky, Burt’s feelings for her change throughout the story. Comparing the fight for his marriage to the destruction of the Vietnam War, Burt vacillates between wanting to improve their marriage and wanting to give up. His actions toward Vicky are those of someone stuck in a cycle of distrust and resentment.
The conflicts between Burt’s love and hate for Vicky and his sanity and the supernatural are vital to his characterization, through which the reader experiences the action. Burt sees himself as a good man; he was a medic in the war and thus sees himself as someone who saves lives instead of taking them. However, he also behaves violently toward Vicky on multiple occasions and displays selfish and insensitive behavior in his thoughts and actions toward others. His veteran experience is important to the story’s suspense, as it adds a false sense of confidence in his ability to defend himself and Vicky, highlighted by his calm reaction on finding the murdered boy and perceiving the danger they may be in. This sense of danger, however, is one he then stubbornly ignores, mostly, the story suggests, to avoid agreeing with Vicky when she repeatedly expresses her fear.
Because King shows the reader Burt’s thoughts and feelings, the reader knows that Burt is concealing very real fear although his outward demeanor is matter-of-fact. In this way, King hints that Burt may be an unreliable narrator. Increasingly, such as when Burt hears strange references to “defiling” the corn on the radio and sees He Who Walks Behind the Rows, King leaves Burt’s sanity—and the existence of the supernatural—open to interpretation, meaning that the ambiguity of the supernatural elements are presented through Burt’s fear and confusion. Because King employs a limited third-person perspective to reflect Burt’s thoughts and feelings, there is an element of uncanny subjectivity to Burt’s account that highlights the Gothic nature of the narrative.
Vicky Robeson
Although Vicky’s character is secondary to Burt’s and she is characterized primarily through dialogue in her reactions to others, her perspective also helps to propel the story. A former prom queen who was raised in a strict Christian family, Vicky is so adamantly opposed to Christianity that she cannot tolerate hearing sermons on the radio, proclaiming, “That drivel makes me sick” (263).
Vicky is described as beautiful and graceful, but she is also sarcastic, belittling, and spiteful in her interactions with Burt. She mocks him throughout their road trip by making comments like, “Such wit. This is why we got off the turnpike. So we could look at three hundred miles of corn. And enjoy the wit and wisdom of Burt Robeson” (257). Her words enact the marital discord between the couple, discord that is both a device to cause the road accident and that establishes an immediate sense of stress and violence, both latent and real. A major part of the very little information the story gives about Vicky is that she is beautiful, married very young, and has few educational qualifications. King’s inclusion of this detail suggests that it contextualizes how Burt treats her, as his default mode is to dismiss her growing concerns, even when his inner fears accord with hers.
Although Burt’s perspective casts Vicky in a hostile and often sexist view as annoying, “hysterical,” and a hindrance to him in enacting his decisions, in fact, she is increasingly the story’s voice of reason. Through her character, the story raises pathos and suspense by showing a potential way out of danger, while the marital discord between the two gives Burt a plausible reason for ignoring all the warnings: because Vicky voices them and he is trapped into antagonism.
Through this antagonism, brought into the story by Vicky’s character in relation to Burt’s, the story explores the culpability of Burt as protagonist, part of the horror theme of human vice. Vicky, although not an entirely sympathetic character, is framed as the story’s primary victim, because it is largely through Burt’s stubbornness and violence that she is unable to protect herself from the children’s violence. As the cult approaches the car, she is “frozen in panic,” and Burt “doubt[s] if she c[an] even hear him through the closed windows” (277). Vicky is also “frozen” because she is unable to drive away, as Burt has roughly taken her keys. The fact that she had earlier urged him to drive away adds pathos to her murder, and hubris in the moment that Burt finally acknowledges the danger, when he sees her attacked.
Isaac
Although he is only nine years old, Isaac’s demeanor and commanding presence reveal an eerie maturity beyond his years. A secondary character who appears after the murders of Burt and Vicky, Isaac is the self-proclaimed prophet and leader of the cult that worships the malevolent deity known as He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
Isaac’s charisma is a central force driving the children to commit unspeakable acts in the name of their dark religion. His ability to manipulate and indoctrinate the young minds of Gatlin showcases a cunning intelligence. Isaac’s motivations are rooted in a twisted sense of power and a fanatical belief in the supernatural entity he claims to serve.
Despite his youth, Isaac embodies a chilling blend of religious fervor and malevolence. His physical appearance, with wisps of red hair and an unsettling gaze, adds to the aura of menace surrounding him. Isaac serves as a metaphorical representation of the corrupting influence of Religious Fanaticism and the dangers of unchecked authority in the hands of the misguided.
The Children of Gatlin
The children who form the cult of He Who Walks Behind the Rows present a violently antagonistic threat to protagonists Burt and Vicky. Although King implies that their actions are driven by He Who Walks Behind the Rows, all direct violence is perpetrated by the children, which leaves room for the possibility that they might be guided by a more human evil: the charismatic nine-year-old Isaac.
Their flat characterization, lacking individual depth, underscores their assimilation into a cult-like mentality. Their names, stripped of individual identity, emphasize their role as a unified entity under Isaac’s influence. The group’s actions, such as ritualistic killings and obedience, highlight the dangers of unchecked fanaticism and the loss of innocence. Their description—contrasted with their gory and fatal attack on Vicky—highlights the horror of the conflicting moral concepts they simultaneously embody: innocence and evil; youth and age, as evidenced by their appearance:
Some of them glanced indifferently at Burt, standing frozen on the church steps, and some nudged each other and pointed and smiled the sweet smiles of children. The girls were dressed in long brown wool and faded sun-bonnets. The boys, like Quaker parsons, were all in black and wore round-crowned flat-brimmed hats (277).
The clashing mixture of indifference and sweetness exemplifies the essence of the story’s horror: that even “sweet” children can murder. Their expressions also exemplify the Fear of the Unknown, since there is no indication that there are murderous spirits beneath the exterior.
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