The Dead Zone

Greg Stillson is a major antagonist in the novel. He emerges from a poor background as a charismatic and dangerous politician. Though Stillson works hard to succeed, he disregards both morality and law. He works as a Bible salesman with a side business in anti-Semitic literature, as a Christian preacher who blackmails his parishioners, and as a real estate developer who hides his corruption with threats and violence. Beneath his charismatic and charming exterior, Stillson hides a brutal fury that must be restrained at all times.

Like the society he occupies and takes advantage of, Stillson hides a darkness within him that he endeavors to keep hidden. Stillson seizes on a moment of political disillusionment following the disgrace and resignation of Richard Nixon to build himself as an anti-establishment, anti-corruption politician. While presenting this personality to the voting population, Stillson hides the fact that he is incredibly corrupt and that he desires to make himself a part of the establishment. The opportunistic, self-declared friend of the people is actually a violent psychopath who lusts after power.

Johnny is the only person who can see the consequences of Stillson’s behavior. Stillson can charm sensible, empathetic people like Roger Chatsworth into believing that he is a harmless piece of entertainment. Johnny is intrigued by this but, when he shakes Stillson’s hand, he sees a possible future which is so dark that it obliterates the charming mask that Stillson presents to the world. When Stillson shields himself with a young child, the world sees the same version of Stillson that haunted Johnny. Stillson dies a metaphorical death. He lives, but the false political persona he created is killed.

Sarah is the love of Johnny’s life and a reminder of everything he has lost. At the beginning of the novel, Sarah is Johnny’s fellow teacher and girlfriend. She appreciates Johnny’s laidback approach to life and his aloof charm. Sarah’s experiences with an abusive ex-boyfriend inform her appreciation of the considerate and humorous Johnny. She declares her love for Johnny hours before the car crash, leaving her in an awkward position. With the man she loves in a coma, Sarah must decide how long she will wait for him. She cannot see herself as a widow, nor can she see herself as unattached. Sarah endures several years of confusion, effectively mourning the life she lost with Johnny and rediscovering how to dedicate herself to another person.

Sarah meets Walt, falls in love, and becomes a wife and a mother. However, her unexplored future with Johnny haunts her. Johnny’s recovery forces her to confront her guilt over moving on and to reconcile her imagined future with her new identity as a wife and mother. Sarah’s brief affair with Johnny provides insight into how they might have been together. Tragically, Sarah realizes that she still loves Johnny but that they can never be together. Their shared afternoon becomes her opportunity to mourn the future that might have been. When Sarah visits Johnny’s grave at the end of the novel, she is finally given a moment of closure. She feels his ghostly presence with her, just as she has felt the haunting guilt about the relationship.

Vera Smith is Johnny’s mother and a religious fanatic. At the beginning of the novel, she is a devout but typical Christian woman. Johnny’s accident has an immense effect on her, and she deals with a huge amount of pain and worry. Vera’s strife causes her to search for answers as to why her son might be involved in such an accident, and she finds answers in increasingly esoteric and outlandish beliefs. Through her magazine subscriptions and correspondences, Vera devotes her life to Christian cults, UFO speculators, and all kinds of supernatural belief systems that provide her with empty—and often expensive—hope. On several occasions, she joins apocalyptic cults and moves out of her house. When the end of the world fails to materialize, she returns home but refuses to give up on her beliefs. When Johnny comes out of the coma, Vera believes his survival is due to her devotion. She feels further vindicated in her extreme beliefs when Johnny shows signs of supernatural powers. Johnny feels guilty when Vera stops taking her medicine because she believes that doing so goes against the will of God because his existence validates his mother’s fanaticism, which ultimately leads to her death.  

Vera’s legacy also has a positive dimension. She encourages Johnny to embrace his ability, believing that he will be able to do God’s work. The encouragement she gives him and the moral responsibility she places upon him have long-lasting consequences. For the rest of his life, Johnny feels his mother’s influence whenever he is debating whether to use his abilities. Her conviction that he can do God’s work convinces him to do what he believes is right. By the end of the novel, Vera’s legacy is to imbue her son with her same obsession and fanaticism. While she dedicated her life to absurd beliefs, Johnny dedicates himself to killing Greg Stillson. He becomes the arbiter of good and evil that his mother believed him to be.