Firestarter

Much of Firestarter is about gaining a meaningful sense of control. The Shop’s attempts to possess Charlie speak to its desire to manipulate its creation. Both Andy and Rainbird try to control Charlie, while Charlie fights to control her power and her own feelings of guilt and despair.

The dystopian aspects of the novel work alongside a coming-of-age story, where Charlie grows into maturity and leaves childhood behind. Her struggle to gain control of her ability is literal, but it is also a metaphor for growing into oneself. Charlie’s last act in the novel, her decision to march to New York to tell her story, reflects how she is taking control and becoming self-actualized.

Through the government, King portrays the toxic side of control. The Shop attempts to create a human weapon that they can manipulate. They use both physical violence and psychological manipulation. King considers this element vital, and to this end, uses his novel to explore the seeming amorality of the process by illustrating not only the government making malicious use of it, but also its apparently benevolent use by Charlie’s parents.

King concretizes the multifaceted nature of manipulation though Dr. Wanless’s conversation with Cap (76-79). Wanless illustrates the benign method of psychological manipulation practiced by mindful parents, whose use of the procedure seems to ameliorate its actual purpose of psychological control. Through the building of the “complex” (76), parents are able to effect behaviors, even before they can rationally explain the need for such behaviors, seen most readily in toilet training. This process, of building programs of control, also gains a tight focus in the work. Entire chapters discuss the best methods of psychological control undertaken by government agents. King focuses on the play-by-play minutiae of experimentation. There are no accidents under government supervision; the purpose is pre-rational control; the anecdote about toilet training serves as a guiding paradigm for the methods of manipulation on display within the novel.

The evil nature of psychological manipulation is most visible in John Rainbird’s grooming of Charlie. King invests Rainbird with a possible sexual motive, heightening the stakes and horror. Rainbird grooms Charlie to act as his partner. He cultivates her trust through gaslighting and false empathy, a mimicry of the way parents act to retain control over their child. Trust and love, in this sense, simply become tools for control. Rainbird ultimately manipulates himself as well; he convinces himself that though he has placed Charlie in a dangerous situation, he is serving her best interests.

Even a good character like Andy uses control in a negative way. His primary psychic ability, his “push,” seems to remove the necessity for elaborate psychological manipulation. However, like the government, he is using control to serve his own interests. In his sideline business, for instance, he uses his ability to boost self-confidence and effect weight loss. Additionally, Andy manipulates Charlie’s powers to his own ends—he instills great shame in her over her abilities but allows her to use them when he deems it necessary.

King shows that the most effective method of psychological manipulation is the propagation of fear. Charlie’s fear—of herself, of her ability—is carefully cultivated. Charlie is constantly being presented with hypotheticals, first by her father and mother, and then by Rainbird, of what might happen if she were to lose control of her ability. Fear haunts Charlie, and presents a considerable burden on her psyche. Andy and Vicky perpetuate Charlie’s fear so that she will suppress her power, while Rainbird uses fear to encourage her to develop it. All three depict the treacherous nature of psychological manipulation, even when well-intended. This psychological manipulation is an extension of the failures of authority; psychological manipulation is portrayed as authority’s primary tool. In order to come of age, Charlie must overcome this manipulation.