The Stand: Reclaiming disability

If I think back to a common thread in many of the SK books that I read when I was younger, I think that I would say that many of them were about people who were considered losers.  Usually, SK dispels this perception by providing insight into the 'loser's' life, showing that there is a reason--often related to abuse or circumstances beyond that person's control.  The losers, then, are actually more complex than first glance might show.'

Carrie was also one of these losers, but whatever sympathy was created for her quickly evaporated when she began her rampage.  However, she's one of the few.  There aren't really losers in 'Salem's Lot, even if there are abused people.  Rage exposed some losers, but on the whole, there was a great deal of sympathy and acceptance between the hostages (with one exception, but that one exception was not a loser).  These early books lack in such characters.

In The Stand, there are a few people who might fit into the category of losers, but several of them are ostracized in the pre-superflu society due to circumstances beyond their control: they are disabled in various ways.  Nick Andros is deaf and dumb, Tom Cullen is 'mildly retarded,' and Trashcan Man suffers from a severe mental disorder.  All three play pivotal roles in the book.  Nick becomes a leader in the society, then a martyr when he is killed by Harold Lauter's bomb.  However, he continues to communicate with Tom Cullen, helping him when he needs assistance.

Flagg's downfall comes from the two other characters: he cannot read the mind of Tom, instead he only sees the moon (Tom is convinced that almost all words are spelled M-O-O-N) and, as I mentioned yesterday, it is Trashcan Man who brings the atomic weapon to Vegas.  The characters in Boulder learn that Tom has knowledge that he can share when he is hypnotized and that he knows more than he shows.  Therefore, he is the perfect spy.  What appears to be a disability, then, is actually an asset, both for Tom and his community.  Such reverence for characters who are handicapped becomes a common theme in King's later novels, but this is a new idea in The Stand.  I will also put forward that these characters most often appear in his quest-type novels and are integral to the quest succeeding.